UCF to Head to Raleigh for 2021 ITA Kickoff Weekend

ORLANDO, Fla. – The No. 18 UCF women's tennis team selected to travel to Raleigh, N.C. in this year's ITA Kickoff Draft, adding their first two matches to the Black and Gold's 2021 dual match schedule. The Knights will face No. 17 Wake Forest on Sunday, January 24 and face the weekend's host, No. 7 NC State or No. 32 Northwestern on Monday, January 25.

The four teams in the Raleigh bracket will look to get out to a hot start and punch their ticket to ITA National Indoors after a shortened 2019-20 campaign due to the global pandemic of COVID-19. The team's rankings and seeding for the ITA Kickoff Draft were based off an unreleased run of the ITA team rankings after the season was cut short. UCF was ranked at No. 20 in the final public release of 2020, but that didn't include their road win over No. 22 Baylor. The Knights had the sixth pick in the draft and selected to be the three seed at NC State.

The 2021 ITA Kickoff Weekend will work a little differently this season. There are only seven host sites compared to the usual 15 of years past. The slash creates a highly competitive tournament of 28 teams to get to ITA National Indoors, which will also see a cut in its field this season.

The Black and Gold will face another team that reps similar colors on what could be UCF's first match of the season. They'll collide with the second seed of the bracket, No. 17 Wake Forest, who compiled a 9-4 record. It will be the first time in program history that the two teams play each other. The Demon Deacons scored ranked wins over No. 5 Princeton, No. 31 Auburn and No. 37 Clemson. They played a handful of other highly ranked squads, falling to No. 1 UNC, No. 3 NC State and No. 10 Georgia Tech.

Based on the result of the Sunday matches, the Knights may face the weekend's host, No. 7 NC State on Monday. They posted an outstanding 18-3 record before their season was cut short in 2020, collecting eight ranked victories. They punched their ticket to the ITA National Indoors with wins over Rice and No. 24 Florida last season. The Knights are 1-1 all-time against the Wolfpack.

The other Monday option is No. 32 Northwestern, a team the Knights played in the 2019 ITA Kickoff Weekend opening round. UCF lost a heartbreaker by a count of 4-3 but went on to win their second match of the weekend that year. Northwestern had a rough start to their 2020 campaign, tallying a 5-6 mark. The Wildcats return a roster filled with mostly juniors and seniors, bringing plenty of experience back to the courts. The 2019 meeting with Northwestern was the only time the two teams have met.

The rest of the UCF women's tennis schedule is set to be released soon. Preseason team, singles and doubles rankings will debut during the second week of January.

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