Jan. 30, 2006
ATLANTA – The fourth-ranked Georgia Tech women’s tennis team will begin its 2006 dual-match season this weekend at the USTA-ITA National Indoor Championships in Madison, Wisconsin.
The Yellow Jackets are the No. 2 Seed in the 19th-annual tournament, which is one of three national collegiate championships held this season. The USTA-ITA National Team Indoor Championship is collegiate tennis’ premier indoor team tournament, and it will be contested at the University of Wisconsin’s A.C. Tennis Stadium February 2-5.
Tech will be competing in the National Indoor Team Championships for the first time in history this week, and will face third-ranked Texas in the first round Thursday at 9 a.m. Texas eliminated Georgia Tech from the 2005 NCAA Championships in the Sweet-16 in Athens, Ga.
“Our team is ready to play,” said head coach Bryan Shelton, “and we are excited about the opportunity that we have this week. Our preparation as been really good, and I think that, from a mental standpoint, our team understands what it takes to be successful.”
Two-time defending champion Stanford headlines a strong field at the championships, which also includes No. 3 Texas, No. 6 Northwestern, No. 7 Georgia, No. 8 Vanderbilt, No. 9 Baylor, No. 10 Miami, No. 11 North Carolina, No. 13 Kentucky, No. 14 (tie) Duke and TCU, No. 17 California, No. 18 Harvard, No. 21 BYU, and No. 34 Wisconsin.
“We have a lot of respect for all of the teams that will be competing,” said Shelton, “but we also have a lot of confidence right now in our abilities and what we can do. The girls are excited about showcasing the hard work that they have put in over the summer and fall and early part of this semester.”
First Round play begins Thursday at 10 a.m. (EST) and continues at 4 p.m. that afternoon. Four matches will take place during each session. Consolation matches from the first day’s competition will be played on Friday and Saturday, while quarterfinal play takes place Friday at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. and semifinals commence Saturday at 4 p.m. Sunday’s championship match is scheduled to begin at 12 noon.
The tournament will feature 46 of the nation’s top 100 singles players, including Tech’s No. 7 Kristi Miller, No. 25 Tarryn Rudman, No. 35 Kelly Anderson and No. 71 Lyndsay Shosho, and 19 of the top-50 doubles teams in the nation, including the Jackets’ No. 26 duo of Miller and Shosho and No. 42 tandem of Anderson and Whitney McCray.
With four teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference, and four other teams (Northwestern, Georgia, Vanderbilt, Baylor) that are competing in this weekend’s championships on Tech’s dual-match schedule, the Jackets will meet a total of nine of the nation’s top teams in the next two months. Tech has already faced California in the Michigan Invitational, and with its first-round matchup against Texas in the National Indoor Team Championships, the Jackets will face a minimum of 11 of the country’s top-17 teams before ACC Tournament play begins at the end of April.
“With four teams competing this weekend, I think that the ACC must be the strongest conference in the country,” said Shelton. “With our schedule, and playing at least 11 of those teams this season, we are just getting ourselves ready. I think this week will be a great preparation week for NCAA’s that commence at Stanford in May.”
