Utah vs. #12 UCF January 25, 2020, 2 p.m. ET | #12 UCF vs. #15 Michigan/Ole Miss January 26, 2020, 10 a.m. or 1 p.m. ET |
ORLANDO, Fla. – The No. 12 UCF women's tennis team is set for ITA Kickoff Weekend in Ann Arbor, Mich. as they'll square off with the Utah Utes on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET.
The No. 15 Michigan Wolverines are the hosts of ITA Kickoff Weekend. The Knights elected to be the No. 2 seed in the four-team bracket with the fourth pick in the ITA Kickoff Weekend draft back in early June. Michigan, UCF, Utah and Ole Miss make up the bracket. The winner of each match on Saturday will advance to the championship match while the losers will find themselves in a consolation match. The winner of the weekend punches an automatic bid to the ITA National Team Indoor Championship.
UCF is just one match into their 2020 schedule as they swept Cornell by a count of 7-0 on Saturday. A few Knights had dominating performances against the Big Red as Evgeniya Levashova and No. 54 Marie Mattel both were victorious in their singles matches by a count of 6-0, 6-0.
Utah comes into ITA Kickoff Weekend with a 5-0 record. They recorded two double header sweeps over Southern Utah and Montana before beating Minnesota by a count of 4-3. It is their best start since the 1983-84 season. The Utes come into the match with one ranked doubles tandem, as Whitney Hekking and Madison Tattini hold the No. 24 spot in the doubles ranking.
No. 15 Michigan will face Ole Miss earlier in the day on Saturday. The Wolverines went 20-6 last season, reaching the Sweet 16 where they fell to No. 1 Georgia by a score of 4-2. Giulia Pairone and Andrea Cerdan are ranked in singles for Michigan, checking in at Nos. 26 and 85 respectively. Michigan has reached the ITA National Team Indoor Championship in 10 of their last 11 seasons; they've hosted the event in nine of the last ten seasons.
Ole Miss is out to a 2-0 start this season with wins over Memphis and UT Martin. Their lone ranked singles player is No. 48 Sabina Machalova while their ranked doubles tandem consists of Tereza Janatova and Anna Vrbenska, who are pegged at No. 57.
The Knights will face Utah for the first time in program history come Saturday. The Black and Gold won their most recent meeting with Michigan, a 4-2 result on College MatchDay in 2018. They are 1-2 against the Wolverines all time. UCF has only played Ole Miss twice, splitting the two decisions. Their most recent match saw the Black and Gold claim a 6-1 victory last season. The two are scheduled to face each other on Feb. 21 later this season.
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