No. 7 M-Tennis Heads To Chicago For ITA National Team Indoor Championships
Thursday, February 12, 2009 | Men's Tennis
The seventh-ranked University of Florida men's team (5-1) will continue its tour of Illinois as the Gators depart Urbana and arrive in Chicago for the 2009 ITA National Men's Team Indoor Championships on Feb. 13-16. The Gators will kick off the round of 16 on Friday at 1 p.m. ET against No. 11 Stanford (3-0).
The Gators will face a tough tournament field, as all 16 teams participating in the event are ranked in the top-20 on ITA's latest poll. Each team earned the trip to Chicago and advanced to the Round of 16 after winning their draw in the ITA Kickoff Weekend on Jan. 30-31. Florida was one of 15 host sites and defeated No. 48 Arizona (5-2) and No. 15 Texas A&M (6-1) to advance to Chicago.
Florida's first opponent of the event, Stanford, advanced to Chicago after defeating No. 26 Boise State and No. 31 Auburn. Stanford leads the pack at the ITA Indoors, sitting atop the record book for most championships (12), most final appearances (16) and most wins (77). The fifth-seeded University of Virginia returns as reigning champions of the ITA Team Indoors as the Cavaliers earned the crown in 2008.
Of the 16 teams competing this weekend, six were already featured on Florida's difficult 2009 schedule. The Gators have already swept No. 10 Baylor in the second match of the season and most recently were handed their first defeat by No. 13 Illinois on Tuesday. UF will face No. 16 Florida State on March 3 in Tallahassee and the remaining three teams are all Southeastern Conference opponents (No. 8 Tennessee, No. 9 Ole Miss and No. 3 Georgia).
Following the Gators' trip to Chicago, the squad returns home to host the University of South Florida on Feb. 20 at 3 p.m.
Please check www.GatorZone.com for updated results and www.FightinIllini.com for live scoring.
-UF-
