The Longhorns hit the road as they head to Illinois to compete in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s National Team Indoor Championship.
“I am looking forward to our young team getting to play some of the very best teams, where I think no matter how much verbiage I sell them, the pressure would be a little less on them,” head coach Howard Joffe said. “Because this is a team that, in my mind, can beat anyone.”
Texas began the season with a loss to USC but has yet to taste defeat again. During ITA Kickoff Weekend, the Longhorns dominated Maryland (4–0) and scraped by with a win over Baylor (4–3), which had them punching their ticket to the ITA National Team Indoor Championship for an eighth-consecutive year.
The championship will be hosted by Northwestern and Illinois from Feb. 7-11. The ITA Division I Women’s National Team Indoor Championships features 16 of the top college tennis programs across the country and is known as one of the most prestigious national collegiate tournaments for the past three-and-a-half decades.
The tournament is a single-elimination tournament in which teams will play one match per day. All teams are guaranteed to play at least three matches in the primary competition or in consolation matches between players who lost in earlier rounds. Texas is seeded at No. 5 at the Illinois host site and is set to play against No. 4-seeded Oklahoma State at the Illinois host site.
The Longhorns team consists mainly of underclassmen this season with a majority of freshmen, four of which are ranked: No. 25 Carmen Herea, No. 39 Ariana Anazagasty-Pursoo, No. 92 Eszter Meri and No. 105 Ashton Bowers.
“So there is a certain hunger and naivete (in our freshmen), which is good. It needs to be balanced with some experience,” Joffe said.
The two sole upperclassmen are also ranked with junior No. 78 Vivian Ovrootsky and senior No. 71 Sabina Zeynalova.
With the Longhorns as the No. 5 seed, they play in the same bracket as top-seeded Texas A&M. Coach Joffe spent four years with current Aggie head coach Mark Weaver, who coached his team to NCAA championships just last year. Even so, Joffe remains confident.
“Like I said earlier, there isn’t a match where I don’t feel like we can win,” Joffe said. “So we’ll first have to, with this young group, try to beat Oklahoma State, and then we’ll worry about who’s next.”
Texas will face off against Oklahoma State today at 3:30 p.m.
