Women's Tennis Ranked No. 13, Learns ITA Indoor Draw

The No. 13-ranked Tribe will battled No. 9 Miami (Fla.) in the opening round of the ITA National Team Indoor Championships on Feb. 7.

02/05/08 5:00PM

Williamsburg - The William and Mary women’s tennis team moved up to No. 13 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings released on Feb. 5, and also found out the draw for the upcoming ITA National Team Indoor Championships. W&M will meet No. 9-ranked Miami (Fla.) in the Tribe’s 12th appearance at the national indoor championship.

W&M improved to 4-1 on the year with a pair of 7-0 victories last week over then-No. 48 Virginia and No. 71 Princeton. The No. 13 national ranking is the highest of the season for the College after opening the year at No. 15 in each of the first two polls of the season.

The ITA National Women's Team Indoor Championships will be hosted by the University of Wisconsin at the Nielsen Tennis Stadium in Madison, Wis. The field consists of 16 teams, including 14 of the top 20 teams in the country. The list of teams competing in the event includes No. 1 Stanford, No. 2 UCLA, No. 3 Northwestern, No. 4 Georgia Tech, No. 6 Georgia, No. 7 California, No. 8 USC, No. 9 Miami (Fla.), No. 11 Baylor, No. 12 Fresno State, No. 14 North Carolina, No. 16 Clemson, No. 19 Notre Dame, No. 39 Arkansas and No. 75 Wisconsin.

W&M will meet the No. 8-seed in the championships, Miami (Fla.), at 4:30 p.m. (EST), on Thursday, Feb. 7. The winner of the opening round match will face the winner of No. 1-seeded Stanford and Baylor at 4:30 p.m. in the quarterfinals on Friday, Feb. 8. The event will run through Sunday, Feb. 10, and will include a consolation bracket along with the championship flight.

The 2008 championship will be the 12th appearance in the event for W&M and its first since the 2004 season. The Tribe’s best finish at the event included a pair of quarterfinal berths in 1998 and 1999. Overall, the College has won 13 matches at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships.

Miami is currently a perfect 3-0 on the year with victories over Florida Atlantic (7-0), No. 32 Florida International (6-1) and No. 24 Michigan (6-1). Laura Vallverdu is the Hurricanes top singles player at No. 29 in the ITA singles rankings released on Jan. 8. Miami also had a doubles team in the national rankings at No. 49 in the form of Caren Seenauth and Romy Farah.

Live stats for the event will be available at the ITA website, ITATennis.com. The Tribe returns to the Williamsburg with a trio of match, Feb. 15-18. W&M will face No. 39 Arkansas at noon on Friday, Feb. 15, before facing No. 65 Colorado on Saturday, Feb. 16, at noon. The College welcomes Harvard to Williamsburg for a 1 p.m. tilt on Monday Feb. 18. All three matches will be played at the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center.

Complete ITA National Team Indoor Championships Bracket (PDF)