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No. 5 Men's Tennis Ready to Host ITA Kick-Off Weekend

January 24, 2020
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WACO, Texas – The fifth-ranked Baylor men’s tennis team will host Gonzaga, New Mexico and Louisville for the ITA Kick-Off Weekend event on Jan. 25-26 at Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center.

Baylor (3-0) will be one of four teams competing over the weekend. The top-seeded Bears will first face No. 4 seed Gonzaga at 3 p.m. CT Saturday. Prior to that match at 11 a.m., No. 2 seed Louisville faces third-seeded New Mexico.

The winners of those two matches advance to the following day’s championship match at 3 p.m., while the two losing teams will square off in a consolation match Sunday at 11 a.m.

Baylor is one of 15 men's host sites around the country for the Kick-Off Weekend. The other three teams chose to come to Waco as part of a draft selection process that was completed last June.

The ITA National Team Indoor Championship will then be held Feb. 14-17, 2020, in Madison, Wis.

The Bears have competed in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend in nine of the 11 years of its existence, winning all 18 matches and advancing to the national event each year.

BU will host the event for the eighth time in program history and has not served as the host on only two occasions (2017, 2019).

Last season, BU pushed past No. 12 Georgia, 4-2, and advanced to the national site after defeating host and 24th-ranked Michigan, 4-1, in Ann Arbor.

Baylor recently posted three wins at home to open the 2020 season, going a combined 20-1 against Boise State, UT Arlington and Nebraska last weekend.

Gonzaga opened its season with a 2-1 record after wins at Drake and against Northern Illinois last weekend. This will be the first program meeting between Baylor and the Zags, who have the No. 57-ranked doubles team in Sam Feit and Matthew Hollingworth.

Louisville is receiving votes in the latest ITA poll after starting with a 4-0 record this season, including an upset win over No. 10 Virginia last Saturday. The Cardinals have one ranked singles player in No. 42 Tin Chen. The all-time series is tied 1-1 between Baylor and Louisville, and a Sunday matchup would be the first since 2011.

New Mexico (0-2) looks for its first win of the season after falling to Tennessee and Middle Tennesee State last weekend. Baylor leads the all-time series against the Lobos, 4-1.

Tags: Tennis
 
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