NORMAN, Okla. – The No. 56 University of New Mexico men’s tennis team is venturing to Oklahoma for the ITA Kickoff Event, where the Lobos will square off against the second-ranked Sooners and either No. 28 Northwestern or No. 58 Arkansas.
ITA Kickoff Event
The ITA Kickoff Weekend serves as a qualifying tournament for next month’s ITA Division I National Men’s Team Indoor Championships being hosted by the University of Illinois at Midtown Athletic Club in Chicago, Ill in February.
The team that wins both of its matches over the weekend will receive the berth to the tournament.
There are fifteen different schools hosting the event on the men’s side and UNM is one of sixty schools participating. Each host school welcomes three schools to participate in the ITA Kickoff Event.
(No. 56) UNM vs. (No. 2) Oklahoma
The No. 4 seed Lobos will hit the ground running in the weekend event as they will face host school and top-seeded No. 2 OU, the 2014 NCAA tournament runner-up, in their first match of the weekend taking place on Saturday at 2 p.m. CT at OU’s Headington Family Tennis Center.
UNM will have to come ready to play against the fully-loaded OU lineup. The Sooners have four ITA ranked singles players on their team: Axel Alvarez (No. 14), Andrew Harris (No. 20), Dane Webb (No. 33), and Alexandru Ghilea (No. 50). Alvarez and Webb are also ranked in doubles coming in at No. 38.
“We’re excited about the challenge this weekend,” interim head coach Bart Scott said. “We got some great experience under our belt out in Arizona and now we are ready for arguably one of the toughest challenges in college tennis today, to play Oklahoma at OU. They are extremely talented and have the reigning ITA Coach of the Year, so they are obviously well coached too.”
On Sunday, the Lobos will face either (No. 2 seed) NU or (No. 4 seed) UARK. NU has one ITA ranked player in its lineup with Strong Kircheimer. UARK does not have any ranked players. The winners of Saturday’s matches will battle for the ticket to the tournament while the remaining two team battle in a consolation match.
“Arkansas and Northwestern are both very difficult match ups as well, but our guys are excited for the challenge,” Scott added.
The Lobos will also be competing without their primary No. 1 singles player Samir Iftikhar (ranked No. 41 nationally) as he is out with an injury.
LINK FOR LIVE SCORING & VIDEO OF THE MATCHES
About ITA Kick-Off Weekend
The ITA Kick-Off Weekend events were created in 2009 as qualifiers for the ITA Division I National Team Indoor Championships. Sixty schools compete for the remaining 15 spots in the ITA National Team Indoor Championships, with a reserved spot for the host institution. After ITA Kick-Off Weekend host sites are named, a draft is held with schools selecting which site to play at in order of year-end ITA Team Rankings.