Fields Complete For ITA Team Indoor Tournaments
The ITA's Kick-off Weekend, which just concluded with the Georgia beating Marshall to take the 15th spot in the women's draw, was a vastly more interesting (and more fair) way to pick the contestants for the Team Indoor titles. This year the men's field will include:
Florida
Georgia
Baylor
Virginia
Texas
Ohio State
Mississippi
Tennessee
Tulsa
Pepperdine
UCLA
USC
Stanford
Florida State
Michigan
Illinois (host)
The Seminoles, Wolverines and Cardinal earned their spots on the road--although as the No. 1 seed, Florida State's win at Penn State wasn't exactly an upset. FSU beat Oklahoma State 4-3, with Chris Cloer at No. 5 getting the fourth point, but Jean Yves Aubone's victory at No. 1 over Oleksandr Nedovyesov might have been the key in securing their berth in Chicago. Michigan, seeded No. 2 to host North Carolina's No. 1, didn't even have to beat the Tar Heels, who lost their opening match to Virginia Commonwealth 4-2. Michigan, a 5-2 winner over Cal in the first round, then beat VCU 5-1. No. 1 seed Stanford, playing without an injured Bradley Klahn, beat host Boise State 6-1 and Auburn 5-2 to advance to Chicago.
In addition to Klahn, I noticed several other players listed in the line-ups who did not play. Alexei Grigorov of Texas A & M did not play, as the Aggies fell to Florida in the second match, nor did Holden Seguso at UCLA (the Bruins cruised to wins over South Alabama and Fresno State). And I neglected to mention in my preview that Daniel Vallverdu was not listed in Miami's lineup, although he is still on their roster, and may still be recovering from the injury that kept him from competing in the semifinals at the Individual Indoor in November. The Hurricanes lost to Alabama in the opening round at Pepperdine.
The women's field in Madison will consist of:
Stanford
UCLA
California
USC
Northwestern
Baylor
Florida
Georgia
Georgia Tech
Duke
Miami
Clemson
Fresno State
Notre Dame
North Carolina
Wisconsin (host)
No. 2 seeds Fresno State, Notre Dame and North Carolina won their spots on the road, with Fresno State upsetting host Vanderbilt, the top seed and Notre Dame ousting host Arkansas, also the top seed. North Carolina wasn't required to beat top seed Texas, as fourth seeded host William and Mary did that in the opening round, with the Tar Heels rolling past the Tribe in the final. Fresno State didn't have much trouble against Vanderbilt in the final, winning the match 4-0, but they barely escaped the Denver team in the opener, winning 4-3, and helped immensely by the fact that Denver was unable to field a player for the No. 6 singles spot and had to forfeit that match, as well as the No. 3 doubles match.
In Duke's 4-2 win over Ohio State, the Blue Devils' No. 1 Tara Iyer did not play, with freshman Mallory Cecil moving into the top spot, while Northwestern's No. 1 Maria Mosolova sat out the Wildcats' opening round win over New Mexico.
See the ITA website for information about the Team Indoor championships, which begin next Friday, Feb. 13.
15 comments:
The Texas/TCU men's match was closer than the 4-1 score indicates. UT won the doubles point pretty easily, the #1 team of Josh Zavala and Dimitar Kutrovsky is very tough. Once singles started, Kutrovsky won 60,60 in about 40 minutes over Emmanuel Brighiu. After that things got very close, at the #2 line TCU's Kriegler Brink beat Kellen Damico 64,64. Damico thought Brink hit an overhead at him, and responded by hitting him in the chest with a passing shot and screaming "yeah !" But Brink had the last laugh. After Zavala won at #6 over recent Duke transfer Chris Price to put Texas up 2-1, the remaining matches went to three sets. FAU transfer Olivier Sajous clinched it for Texas, beating Adrian Simon, 64,46,63. More details and pics at the Austin Tennis Blog. Thanks.
Grigorov is having trouble getting cleared to play but the Aggies had a shaky weekend. Considering A & M is mentioned as a NCAA champion contender, it could have possibly been a shut out by Florida on Saturday. I expected big stuff out of the Aggie's 1, 2 & 3, but it was not to be. Although Krajicek won on Saturday, it was certainly not his best tennis. Cueto at no. 1 came out of nowhere and is very, very good, it will be interesting to see what his new ranking will be. Throw Hochwalt back in the line-up and they will be a force...heck they already are.
I commend the ITA, for this new format and I applaud the schools, that earned their way to Chicago . It looks like a total team effort from everyone involved. It should be a fantastic tournament . I hope Colette can cover it and provide us the news , just like what she does best .
here are many different titles I could have come up with for this next series of thoughts. 1) Still Believe your USTA Child Is Playing Division I Tennis?
2) ITA international Davis Cup Sunshine Cup kickoff weekend complete.
I was able to quickly go through all the men’s rosters for the kick off weekend, Oklahoma State please update your website – you have more then 3 players. Of the 60 men’s teams’ invited, if you’re a fan of American tennis you may want to start cheering for Michigan or FSU. Both Michigan and FSU qualified without the use of one international player. In all, from the sixty Division I schools listed I counted 286 players from international backgrounds who arguably are not what I would classify as a USTA player. A USTA player spent a majority of their junior tennis career with a USTA card and depending on their section had a rookie level tournament for beginners all the way up to National Open for their age group. I’m in the Florida section thus I find it funny when I receive solicitations for my junior player to travel internationally for 6,000 dollars during the summer and have the experience of competing against the international player. In Florida, that’s a 15 minute car ride to your next super series. Or maybe you want to consider stopping by your nearest D1 College.
Scanning the college sites I found what appears to be 286 international male players, the USTA player number spread across the ITA kick off weekend comes in at 352. Close to 45% of the players on the men’s side were international players. It makes you wonder about the dollars you’re spending now to support your child playing tennis beyond high school when they have not been earmarked as tennis prodigy.. I love tennis and want to support the system, USTA, The Tennis Channel and anything out there that truly helps grow the game. I also am thankful for the journey of discovery that tennis provides for the junior player, the confidence, friendship, and valuing hard work. However, one must wonder what message is being sent by the ITA, D1 coaches, and the NCAA when a football player is questioned for a $15 dollar bus ride which may lead to sanctions yet it’s a known fact that a majority of these international tennis players tried their hand at professional tennis first and then settled for a scholarship at an institution that many don’t plan on graduating from.
Special recognition goes out to the coach of VCU. VCU only carries international players. Their website highlights their NCAA tournament prowess, with a link to his coach of the year award. Talk about rolling out a couple of cans of tennis balls. Fresno State University (didn’t advance) has one USTA player on a roster of nine. ETSU (didn’t advance) has one USTA player on a roster of 11. Denver (didn’t advance) has one USTA player on a roster of eight. San Diego (didn’t advance) has one USTA player on a roster of seven. Mississippi (did qualify) has one USTA player on a roster of eight.
YEP!
Still Believe - "....then settled for a scholarship at an institution that many don’t plan on graduating from. "
Whether you are pro international player or not I think this is a very inaccurate statement. I think if you look through the years it's been the hot shot Americans who leave college early for the pro tour. International students are typically serious about getting a college education and also show up on the academic all-american teams.
Still Believe...I think it would be interesting to look at the number of international players on the rosters of public universities. Arguably a private school can make up any roster they like but its our tax dollars at work at the public schools!
I am sooooo tired of the tax dollar argument w/ foreign players? Can anyone really tell me how much of our tax dollars go to college tennis scholarships? And wouldn't this be one of thousands of things they go to that involve non US citizens? Is this really a concern? Personally I can think of about 500 other things that concern me about how my tax dollars are spent. For those who go through rosters and count the foreign players all I have to say is: get a life! There's a lot of them, get over it.
I know it doesn't work like this at all or probably even most other athletic departments.
But the University of Florida's Athletic Association is a separate corporation from the school and is 100% privately funded.
I completely forgot that was last weekend. Looks like there werent many upsets. How bout Matt Bruch playing #4 at Stanford. Reminds me of when Jean-Julian Rojer went from #1 at UCLA all the way down to #4 in '02.
Tax Money needs to get his facts straight...yes UF's athletic department is separate but "privately funded"...are you kidding me??? UF still has to follow NCAA rules, still has the same scholarships, blah di blah. Yes, they have great boosters, but those boosters are NOT putting up scholarship money!! And now we get to go through the whole schpeal of Bright Futures again! I am with "so tired", lets leave this discussion and not worry about what foreign players are getting vs. what an American player is getting and how our tax dollars are getting spent. If the American player is good enough, then he or she will get what they deserve. Funny how life works...eh?
yes same amount of scholarships...
but the money that is paying for the tuition is coming from private donors not from the state. That was my point.
Why can't we "nationalize" the athletic program, which is perhaps the most solvent and greatest cash flow generator at this and any major university? 3/31/08
The University Athletic Association has a long history of pumping much-needed funds into the university for academic programs. Since 1990, the UAA has donated about $45 million to UF. A gift last fall of $6 million helped fund the Florida Opportunities Scholarship program and is believed to be the largest single gift nationally of an athletic department to a university.
Because of their success and the support of Gator fans everywhere, UF's athletic programs (women's and men's) require zero state funding and zero funding from the university. That's particularly important to point out now when state resources are scarce.
Each year, the UAA's athletic fund-raising arm, Gator Boosters, provides nearly $7 million in scholarships to more than 400 student-athletes. Gator Boosters also raises money to build new and improve existing athletic facilities. Because of that, no state funds are used or requested.
http://www.president.ufl.edu/budget-reduction/faq.html
my facts were quite straight.
Thank You
A lot of schools' athletic scholarships are privately endowed. I know this is the case at the university of Illinois.
I know USC and Stanford has a lot of money for their student-athletes .
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