ITA Kickoff Earns Big Ten Teams Indoors Spots

The International Tennis Association (ITA) held playoffs this past weekend for spots in their February National Indoor Championships. The strength of the Big Ten came through as 4 teams made the cut.

Women
The No. 8 ranked Michigan Wolverines pulled out a win over 18^th ranked Southern California on their home turf.  The berth was clinched by Mimi Nguyen (right), who defeated Kaitlyn Christian, 6-3,5-7,7-5.

It was a tough day for the Illinois women, who came up just shy of winning a spot at the ITA Indoors. The Illini were edged by South Florida, 4-3.

The Iowa Hawkeyes fell to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, 5-2 in the first round of the Kickoff at that school. They then lost by the same score in the consolation match to the Illini.

The Buckeye women were at Tennessee and fell in their match to the 12^th ranked Volunteers, 6-1. It was the first loss of the season for Ohio State.

Men
Ohio State, ranked fourth in the country, shut out UC Irvine 7-0 to capture the ITA Kickoff  on their courts.  The Buckeyes only dropped one set during the match.

After dropping the doubles point, the 15^th ranked Illini took four straight singles to defeat Notre Dame in the final match of their playoff. It wasn’t quite as easy as it sounds as all of the matches in that contest went to three sets.

Michigan secured their place at the ITA Indoors with a 4-2 win over Virginia Tech. Sophomore Evan King  sealed it with a 6-2,7-5 victory over Hokie Lucas Somen.

It wasn’t a great weekend for Wisconsin as the Badgers went to Kentucky.  They lost to the home team, 4-1, and were then shut out in the consolation against Wake Forest,  

The Hoosiers were kicked out of the Kick Off by Southern California, the No. 2 ranked team in the country.  The Trojans shut out Indiana, 7-0.

Minnesota didn’t make it past the first round of the ITA Kickoff as they were up against the No. 6 team in the country. The UCLA Bruins shut out the Gophers, 4-0.