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Kick-Off Weekend Intro

by | Jan 22, 2016 | Blog

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I wrote a introduction for the upcoming 2016 ITA Kick-Off Weekend over on the ITA’s site that talks about what regionals to keep an eye.

Down below I’ll go into some more detail about those regionals to watch then over the next 24 hours keep an eye out for my in-depth preview into each men’s regional along with my match predictions.

There are five men’s regionals where I could see the host potentially getting “upset. In fact there are 2 regionals where I’d consider the host to be a long shot with #20 Texas and #23 Duke both in rebuilding modes after losing four starters off last year’s teams. Duke is starting three freshmen while Texas is starting one freshman and two sophomores that only saw limited action last year. Both have already lost once this season so for either to pull through they’ll need to step it up considerably. In my opinion a case could be made for any of the four in each regional due to how closely they are ranked. The four teams in the Austin regional are separated by just six spots in the most recent rankings (#15 Texas Tech, #17 Mississippi, #20 Texas, #21 Florida) while the four in Durham are separated by eight spots (#19 San Diego, #23 Duke, #26 Vanderbilt, #27 California).


The other men’s hosts that should be on high alert are #7 Illinois, #13 South Florida, and #16 Columbia. Illinois had to replace 3 starters while #25 Northwestern, #24 Tulsa, and #36 Notre Dame each appear to be stronger than they were last season. South Florida returns just about everyone from last year team however #29 Mississippi State, #30 LSU, and #31 Florida State are all dangerous teams. The Columbia regional is right up there as one of the toughest regionals with the four teams only separated by 8 spots in the most recent rankings (#14 Virginia Tech, #16 Columbia, #18 Stanford, #22 Minnesota).

I think the best opening round matches on the men’s side will be Virginia Tech/Stanford, Northwestern/Tulsa, Ole Miss/Texas Tech, Duke/California, Pepperdine/Tulane, and San Diego/Vanderbilt. All 6 of those could go either way with the doubles point looming large in each. 
On the women’s side I think #22 TCU and #24 Georgia Tech are the 2 regional hosts that will have the toughest time defending its home turf with #11 Oklahoma State not far behind 
#22 TCU had to replace 3 of its top 4 from a team that went 19-9 while the #2 and #3 seeds in the regional are both ranked higher and are returning just about everyone. #18 Ohio State returns all 6 singles starters plus Melissa Schaub added freshman sensation Francesca Di Lorenzo (won National Indoor Intercollegiates) while #19 Pepperdine returns everyone except its #1 though Per Nilsson brought in Luisa Stefani who had a tremendous fall beating 9 ranked players.
#24 Georgia Tech returns everyone from a team that went 17-10 last season but the #2 seed, #21 LSU, may be the team to beat.  LSU returns 5 of its 6 singles starters from a team that went 20-11 last season plus the husband/wife co-head coach combo of Julia and Michael Sell brought in Blue Chip freshman Jessica Golovin. The freshman from New York, who was LSU’s highest rated American commit in program history, went 9-3 in the fall with 3 wins over ranked opponents.  Of course for Georgia Tech to face LSU they would need to take care of business on the opening day against the #4 seed #46 William & Mary.  The Tribe returns 4 of its starting 6 including its #1 Leeza Nemchinov who went an almost perfect 19-1 last year in dual-match play. Tribe head coach Tyler Thomson added Virginia transfer Marie Faure to the roster just a few weeks ago with Faure going 8-1 in dual-match play last season for Virginia. 

#11 Oklahoma State is hosting a regional where it’ll be a slight favorite but each of the other 3 teams (#26 Northwestern/#27 Arizona State/#32 Notre Dame) is more than capable of running the table.