Late Tuesday night the ITA released the draws for the upcoming Women’s National Team Indoor Championships which will take place this Friday through Monday in New Haven, Connecticut. Florida as expected is the top seed with North Carolina seeded No. 2 and Oklahoma State No. 3. Cal, which is the defending NTI champions, is seeded No. 7. Yale University will be the tournament hosts with the on-campus Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center the primary venue while the Tennis and Fitness Center of Rocky Hill (30 miles away) will host half of the first round matches and the consolation matches on Saturday and Sunday. FloTennis will live stream all the matches from Cullman-Heyman but there will not be any streaming in Rocky Hill. To view the stream you’ll need to be a FloTennis subscriber which runs $20 a month or $150 a year.
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There was one match of note on Tuesday as TCU rebounded from its Kick-Off Weekend lost to Utah State with a 6-1 win over D2’s Midwestern State. TCU swept all three doubles courts but it had to forfeit the No. 6 spot in the singles lineup due to Cameron Norrie having a night class that he had to attend. Alex Rybakov, Jerry Lopez, Guillermo Nunez, and Hudson Blake won in straight sets at 1, 2, 3, and 5 while Gianni Mancini won a third-set supertiebreak at 4.
Sebastian Roditi makes his recap debut as @RoditiTCUTennis breaks down the 6-1 Tuesday victory over Midwestern State#TCUTennis #GoFrogs pic.twitter.com/i1eZ5xEFEK
— TCU Men’s Tennis (@TCUMensTennis) February 8, 2017
Post-Match Quotes from TCU’s recap – Head Coach David Roditi
“It was good to get back on the court after a disappointing outing the last time we were out. Midwestern State did a good job of coming right out of the gates. We had some really tough first sets, which is exactly what we wanted. We had to compete and we had to put our head down and play good tennis to get through those sets. Once we did that, we took control of the matches. Playing indoors was a good preparation for Dartmouth and Columbia this weekend, which is going to be a really tough road trip and an opportunity for us to get good wins on the road. It was good to see Cameron (Norrie) back playing and it was good to see Guillermo (Nuñez) healthy and if we can continue to put our best lineup out there, then we will be a tough team to beat.
“I also want to thank all the fans that came out. It was a great crowd for a middle of the week match especially with the men’s basketball game going on. For all those Delta Gammas to come out and support us, we are very thankful and appreciative. We are big fans of the DGs.”
#23 TCU 6, Midwestern State 1
Feb 07, 2017 at Fort Worth, Texas (Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center)
Singles competition
1. Alex Rybakov (TCU) def. Ramon Toyos (MSU) 6-4, 6-2
2. #101 Jerry Lopez (TCU) def. Chris Norrie (MSU) 6-2, 6-1
3. #55 Guillermo Nuñez (TCU) def. Angel Palacios (MSU) 6-0, 6-2
4. Gianni Mancini (TCU) def. Joshua Sundaram (MSU) 3-6, 6-4, 10-8
5. Hudson Blake (TCU) def. Vasudev Vijayaraman (MSU) 7-5, 6-1
6. Dylan Hall (MSU) def. No player (TCU), by forfeit
Doubles competition
1. Guillermo Nuñez/Alex Rybakov (TCU) def. Ramon Toyos/Dylan Hall (MSU) 6-2
2. Cameron Norrie/Hudson Blake (TCU) def. Dillon Pineda/Angel Palacios (MSU) 6-2
3. Jerry Lopez/Gianni Mancini (TCU) def. Chris Norrie/Vasudev Vijayaraman (MSU) 7-6 (7-4)
Match Notes:
Midwestern State 0-1
TCU 3-2; National ranking #23
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1,3); Singles (6,3,2,5,1,4)
I'm glad that the Women's NTI will be hosted at a different facility this year but hosting it at Yale doesn't make much sense to me. Not only is the women's team not really deserving to be in the draw, based on their 0-4 record, the fact that the two tournament sites are 30 miles away is a huge hassle. If there's no college campus with indoor courts, like the Boar's Head at UVa, then why not host at U of Washington, or UNC/Duke could joint host. There has to be a better alternative than this.
Alex, I agree with you – it's one thing to have a team hosting that doesn't belong there but it's another to have that and two sites so far away. The teams that qualified are looking forward to playing the best and whoever plays Yale gets nothing but a win over an unranked team and not a resume enhancer for later in the season.
Playing for a National Championship is a privilege and to have someone be given a free pass isn't right especially since the field is only 16 teams deep to begin with.
I went to the Men's NTIs in Houston a few years back and the sites were about 15 minutes apart which wasn't great however that's nothing compared to 30+ minutes this year.
Well they hosted the NCAAs at Athens and when it rained in 2014 there were only four indoor courts available on site along with an indoor site in Atlanta. Would you say Athens is not an ideal site to host the NCAA tournament Bobby?
To PFS:
What you're describing is a much different situation. First of all, half of the matches are guaranteed to be played at the Womens NTI will 30 miles away from the main site. That ratio is not at all the same for the NCAAs in Athens. Secondly, you're comparing Yale, a good Ivy League team but let's not pretend like they will be even vying for a Sweet 16 this year, to hosting in Athens, the mecca for college tennis. Georgia and Yale have dramatically different pedigrees and clout when it comes to college tennis and I think all the student athletes will agree that playing in Athens, rain or shine, is a highlight of their experience.