Gators Set for ITA National Team Indoor Championships

Friday, February 15

Chicago, IL

7:30 PM ET

Florida Gators

USC

Gators are geared up for the ITA National Team Indoor Championships and will face USC in the first round.

Gators Set for ITA National Team Indoor Championships

Thursday, February 14, 2019 | Men's Tennis

By: Corinne Simpson

WATCH | STATS | MATCH NOTES

CHICAGO – For the 20^th time in program history and second straight season, Florida will participate in the ITA National Team Indoor Championships at the Midtown Athletic Club in Chicago, Illi. 64222

The single-elimination tournament features 16 of the ITA top-20 teams and brings together the winners of the ITA Kick-Off Weekend events. Each team is guaranteed three dual-matches over the course of the weekend and the four-day tournament hosted by Illinois will determine the Indoor National Champions.

The Gators (5-0) received the No. 4 seed and will open the competition against the No. 13 seed, USC (5-3), on Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET. USC is one of three Pac-12 schools in the field.

On Saturday, Florida will line up against either No. 5 seed, Texas (9-0), or No. 12 seed, Illinois (4-1).

Florida in the Oracle ITA Rankings
The Gators are currently ranked fourth nationally and are continuing a streak of 47 straight weeks appearing in the top-25 of the Oracle ITA rankings. In singles, sophomore Oliver Crawford, this week's SEC Athlete of the Week, leads Florida at No. 20 in the nation. Andy Andrade (No. 27), Johannes Ingildsen (No. 46), Sam Riffice (No. 67) and Duarte Vale (No. 109) round out Florida's five ranked players. The Gators have four ranked doubles pairs in No. 3 Brian Berdusco and Ingildsen, No. 10 Crawford and Andrade, No. 16 Andrade and Riffice and No. 35 Crawford and Riffice.

Scouting USC
USC sits at No. 5 in the recent Oracle/ITA rankings. The Trojans opened the with wins over South Carolina (4-0), Cal Poly (4-0), UC Santa Barbara (6-1), UC Davis (6-1) and San Francisco (7-0), but has dropped three straight matches. The 5-3 Trojans fell to Stanford (3-4), Cal (3-4) and top-seeded Ohio State (0-5) in the last week. USC boast seven ranked singles players led by sophomore Daniel Cukierman (No. 4). Cukierman and Tanner Smith (No. 21) sit as the Trojans only ranked doubles pair.

Florida is 2-7 all-time against USC in a series and the teams last faced on Jan. 30, 2016 in Westwood, Calif., with the Gators falling 3-4.

Florida's History at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships

Last season, Florida went 1-2 with a win over Notre Dame and suffered losses to Texas A&M and Illinois.
Since 2010, the Gators are 7-14 at the ITA National Indoor Championships.
They also have not won more than one match in the tournament since 2010 when the Gators defeated Baylor and Georgia.
Florida has reached the finals of the ITA Indoor Championships only once, back in 2003. They lost to Illinois, 4-2.

This Year's Field

The top seed in the draw is Ohio State (9-0), while Mississippi State (6-0) has the No. 2 seed. The rest of the field's seeding includes: No. 3 Wake Forest (9-1), No. 4 Florida (5-0), No. 5 Texas (9-0), No. 6 UCLA (3-1), No. 7 North Carolina (5-1), No. 8 Virginia (7-1), No. 9 Stanford (5-1), No. 10 Baylor (8-0), No. 11 Notre Dame (8-1), No. 12 Illinois (4-1), No. 14 Columbia (3-0), No. 15 TCU (4-2) and No. 16 Tulane (4-3).
Wake Forest is the defending NCAA and ITA Indoor champion. NCAA runner-up Ohio State and Indoor runner-up UCLA both made the field and both teams haven't dropped a match this season.
Wake Forest has only lost six matches in the past three seasons. They currently have one loss this season coming against ACC rival Virginia, who also punched their ticket to the 16-team tournament. Florida defeated the Deacons 4-3 last season in Winston-Salem, NC.
The ACC brings four programs, while the Pac-12 and Big 12 sent three teams and SEC and Big 12 have two representatives each.
USC comes into the tournament with the men ranked in the ITA singles top-125, putting seven on the list. Ten of the 15 highest-ranked men will take the courts in Chicago.

ITA National Team Indoor Championships
Date: Feb. 15-18, 2019
Location: Midtown Athletic Club (Chicago, Illi.)
Live Scoring: http://scores.tennisticker.de/usa/ita/mi2019/lp.html?lid=201
Live Stream: https://web.playsight.com/facility/midtown-athletic-club-chicago-il/home (Free, but need to sign up for an account to access)
Draws: https://www.slam.tennis/ita/indoors/2019/ncaam (scoreboard) | https://www.slam.tennis/ita/indoors/2019/ncaam/bracket (bracket)
Website: https://fightingillini.com/feature/itaindoors2019

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