Women's Tennis remains at #21 in the latest rankings (no singles or doubles update this week). They travel to Illinois this weekend for the ITA Kick-Off Weekend.
Match #1 vs #44 Kentucky on Saturday, 3 pm
Match #2 vs #17 Northwestern/#32 Arizona State on Sunday, TBA

http://www.itatennis.com/AwardsAndRankin...an__20.htm

Was interested in how these teams were selected. Here are the procedures and draft results. Teams are entered into a draft and when chosen are able to pick what site they want to go to. Rice was drafted early on and selected to play at Northwestern.

http://www.itatennis.com/Assets/ita_asse...edures.pdf

http://www.itatennis.com/Events/Kick-Off..._Draft.htm
Men's Tennis enters the rankings at #75. Three home matches this weekend.
Friday
vs. Incarnate Word 12:00 p.m.
vs. Texas-Pan American 5:00 p.m. CT
Sunday
vs. Old Dominion * 11:00 a.m. CT

http://www.itatennis.com/AwardsAndRankin...an__20.htm

Men's

#60 Rice 6
Incarnate Word 0

#60 Rice 6
Texas-Pan American 0

Still cant believe 'Incarnate Word' is a real thing.

Women's

First match of ITA Kick-Off
#17 Northwestern 0
#32 Arizona State 1

Live Scoring

Northwestern's advance story:

Quote:The Northwestern women’s tennis team begins the 2015 regular season by hosting No. 32 Arizona State in the first round of the ITA Kick-Off Weekend on Saturday. The 17th-ranked Wildcats open the year inside the Combe Tennis Center at 11 a.m

NU welcomes three highly ranked teams to Evanston in what is regarded by the ITA as the toughest grouping out of the 15 across the country. No. 21 Rice takes on No. 44 Kentucky in the other match Saturday immediately following NU-Arizona State.

The winner of each group advances to the ITA National Indoor Championships in February. The championships are hosted by the University of Virginia at Boar’s Head Sports Club in Charlottesville, Va.

Northwestern is a two-time champion at the national tournament. In 2009, the ‘Cats powered their way through the competition and beat Georgia 4-1 in the finals. A year later, NU won its second consecutive title with a 4-2 win over North Carolina.

Northwestern shut out both opponents in last year’s ITA Kick-Off Weekend. The Wildcats opened with a 4-0 win over Oklahoma State and advanced to Virginia with a 4-0 victory against Arizona State.

The Sun Devils opened up the 2015 campaign with a 7-0 win over UC-Davis last Saturday. They boast a pair of ranked singles players with Desirae Krawczyk at No. 37 and Ebony Panoho at No. 62. Panoho partners with Gussie O’Sullivan to make up the 53rd-ranked doubles pairing in the nation.

Rice also opened up the season with a 7-0 win. The Owls shut out Lamar last weekend and come to Evanston with a 1-0 record. Natalie Beazant plays in the first singles position for Rice and is one of the best players in the country. Beazant is ranked No. 24 and put together a 10-3 mark in the fall season.

The Kentucky Wildcats head into the tournament with a 2-1 record. Kentucky started the season with a 4-3 loss to Hawaii and then won two in a row over College of Charleston and Belmont. The Wildcats have one ranked singles player with Aldila Sutjiadi just sneaking in at No. 125. Sutjiadi is part of a 19th-ranked doubles tandem with Nadia Ravita.

(01-24-2015 01:03 PM)Almadenmike Wrote:  Northwestern's advance story:

Quote:NU welcomes three highly ranked teams to Evanston in what is regarded by the ITA as the toughest grouping out of the 15 across the country. No. 21 Rice takes on No. 44 Kentucky in the other match Saturday immediately following NU-Arizona State.

Northwestern is probably second toughest, behind Georgia Tech's.

Quote:The highest rated and potentially most combative men's pod is hosted by Notre Dame. The 14th ranked Fighting Irish host No. 16 Columbia, No. 17 Tennessee and No. 24 Oklahoma State. Duke and Kentucky also host groups that consist of four Top 30 teams. On the women's side, No. 18 Georgia Tech hosts the toughest group with No. 19 Oklahoma State, No. 29 Texas Tech and No. 38 Columbia all traveling to Atlanta.

http://www.itatennis.com/AboutITA/News/2...Friday.htm

Northwestern won 4 of 6 first sets in singles.

#17 Northwestern 3
#32 Arizona State 4

#21 Rice vs #44 Kentucky coming up next.

Rice-Kentucky pairings are up on the livestats website.

In #1 doubles, our Natalie Beazant & Liat Zimmermann face #19-ranked Nadia Ravita & Aldila Sutjiadi

In #1 singles, Natalie plays Nadia while at #2, Katherine Ip meets #125-ranked* Aldila.

* #125 is the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's highest individual ranking.

Kentucky wins the doubles point with wins on #2 and #3.

(01-24-2015 04:52 PM)dragon2owl Wrote:  Kentucky wins the doubles point with wins on #2 and #3.

... and then won first sets in singles at #2 (6-3), #3 (6-4), #4 (6-4) & #5 (6-4).

Hope the Owls can mount an impressive comeback!

Kentucky wins 4-0 (winning the 4th just before Beazant closed out her match). Looks like Kentucky was underrated and/or Rice was overrated..

(01-24-2015 07:54 PM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  Kentucky wins 4-0 (winning the 4th just before Beazant closed out her match). Looks like Kentucky was underrated and/or Rice was overrated..

Kentucky was ranked #29 in pre-season before dropping a 4-3 decision to Hawaii last week. Interesting that we didn't have our other freshman, Hodge, in the line-up.

(01-24-2015 07:54 PM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  Kentucky wins 4-0 (winning the 4th just before Beazant closed out her match). Looks like Kentucky was underrated and/or Rice was overrated..

I thought Nat won her match to make it 3-1 before Kentucky closed it out??? That's what Elizabeth had tweeted.

(01-24-2015 08:09 PM)dragon2owl Wrote:  

(01-24-2015 07:54 PM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  Kentucky wins 4-0 (winning the 4th just before Beazant closed out her match). Looks like Kentucky was underrated and/or Rice was overrated..

Kentucky was ranked #29 in pre-season before dropping a 4-3 decision to Hawaii last week. Interesting that we didn't have our other freshman, Hodge, in the line-up.

She's hurt.

Northwestern wins, 4-1. Natalie with the lone point.

(01-25-2015 12:51 PM)dragon2owl Wrote:  Northwestern wins, 4-1. Natalie with the lone point.

The livestas site is now showing that all the matches were played out, and Rice lost 6-1. Natalie won her match in straight sets (6-0, 6-3), but the decisive second sets in all but one of the other singles games were blowouts: 6-0, 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 & 7-6. Bummer!