COLLEGE STATION – The No. 10 Texas A&M men's tennis team looks to punch it's ticket to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships next month as it hosts the ITA Kick-Off Weekend at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center this Saturday and Sunday.
The Aggies will open the spring dual season against No. 37 TCU Saturday at 3 p.m. on the stadium side of the Mitchell Tennis Center. The opening men's match will see No. 33 San Diego faceoff with No. 45 LSU at noon on the grandstand side.
The men's championship match will be contested at 3 p.m. Sunday, with the winner advancing to the ITA National Indoor Championship, Feb. 13-16, in Chicago, Ill. at the Midtown Athletic Club, hosted by the University of Illinois. The consolation match will be played at noon.
The Mitchell Tennis Center also will serve as the host site for the women's ITA Kick-Off Weekend on Saturday and Sunday, and one ticket is good for both the men's and women's matches for the entire day. Tickets can be purchased in advance at 12thManFoundation.com or on the day of the match at the entrance to the Mitchell Tennis Center beginning one hour before first serve.
All four teams have representatives throughout the ITA singles and doubles rankings. The Aggies boast No. 29 Harrison Adams, No. 45 Shane Vinsant, No. 53 AJ Catanzariti and No. 96 Jeremy Efferding in singles and No. 18 Efferding and Jordan Szabo and No. 25 Adams and Vinsant in the doubles rankings. The Horned Frogs enlist a trio of ranked singles players (No. 25 Cameron Norrie, No. 87 Guillermo Nuñez and No. 91 Will Stein) and a pair of ranked doubles teams (No. 15 Norrie and Trevor Johnson and No. 20 Nick Chapell and Stein).
A quintet of ranked singles players will headline the noon match No. 53 Uros Petronijevic (SD), No. 55 Chris Sampson (LSU), No. 67 Tam Trinh (LSU), No. 70 Filip Vittek (SD) and No. 111 Justin Butsch (LSU) along with a singles ranked doubles duo (No. 52 Trinh and Eric Perez of LSU)
Fans will notice several changes in the scoring of this weekend's matches as the ITA efforts to “adopt creative and innovative measures to enhance the sport of tennis during this time of seismic change in collegiate athletics.” The ITA shortened format includes:
• No-ad scoring in singles and doubles
• Three doubles matches played, each match one set to 6, with a tiebreak at 6-all
• Followed (after a brief intermission; time TBA) by six singles matches, each match 2 out of 3 sets, with tiebreaks at 6-all
• No warm-up with opponents (in doubles and in singles)
The following is the complete men's and women's schedule for the ITA Kick-Off Weekend:
Saturday, Jan. 24
12 p.m. Women: Texas A&M vs. North Texas
12 p.m. Men: San Diego vs. LSU
3 p.m. Men: Texas A&M vs. TCU
3 p.m. Women: TCU vs. Houston
Sunday, Jan. 25
12 p.m. Women's Championship
12 p.m. Men's Consolation
3 p.m. Men's Championship
3 p.m. Women's Consolation
Visit 12thMan.com for more information on Texas A&M men's tennis. Aggie fans also can keep up to date with the A&M men's tennis team on Twitter by following @AggieMTEN or on Facebook at Facebook.com/AggieMensTennis.