ITA National Indoor Championship features best of the best in collegiate tennis
Last season, the No. 3 Texas Longhorns were reminded of this fact, shocking both the tennis world and themselves when No. 14 Arizona sent the Longhorns back to the Forty Acres after the first round.
But now, after taking down No. 1 TCU at the Weller Tennis Center 4–1 on Feb. 7, Texas looks to get its get-back in the indoor season finale.
The ITA National Team Indoor Championship consists of 16 premier men’s tennis programs from across the country. Eight teams travel to SMU’s Styslinger/Altec Tennis Complex in Dallas with the Longhorns being one of them. The other eight teams travel to Baylor University’s Jim and Nell Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center in Waco.
Each team is placed into a bracket and matchups are decided based on seeding; Texas was awarded the No. 3 seed. After the initial two rounds of the tournament, the teams competing in Waco will travel to Dallas, and the semi-final and final matches will both be played at SMU’s complex.
Against the Horned Frogs, senior Pierre-Yves Bailly earned Southeastern Conference Athlete of the Week after defeating TCU’s senior star No. 9 Lui Maxted in singles. This is Bailly’s first career conference athlete of the week award.
Redshirt freshman Timo Legout was awarded the SEC Freshman of the Week. After falling 7–5 to the defending doubles national champions in Maxted and senior Pedro Vives, Legout bounced back for a huge win over junior No. 18 Jack Pinnington in the singles competition. No. 11 Legout improves to an impressive 17–2 in singles this year.
Texas opens up the tournament against a familiar face, in-state rival and No. 6 Texas A&M. The Aggies began the year 3–0, but after a humbling 6–1 loss to unranked Pepperdine and a hard-fought 4–2 loss to No. 4 Ohio State, the Aggies hope to end their losing skid with a win over Texas. The two rivals have yet to play each other since the Longhorns swept Texas A&M 4–0 in last year’s NCAA super regional. Texas carries a five match win streak and an all time record of 97–17–3 against Texas A&M.
If the Longhorns continue their momentum and take care of business in the first round, No. 2 Virginia is the probable second round matchup. The Cavaliers handed Texas its only loss of the season in a 4–3 defeat on Feb. 2 in Charlottesville, Virginia.
With a 7–1 record, Texas will begin their chase for the ITA Championship at 12 p.m. on Feb. 14 for the seventh straight year.
