WACO, Texas - Baylor tennis has a full weekend of matches ahead, as both the men's and women's teams are hosting ITA National Team Indoor qualifying matches on Saturday and Sunday at Baylor's Hurd Tennis Center.
The eighth-ranked men's team will face New Mexico State on Saturday at 3 p.m. on the front courts, while Florida State and Rice will square off at the same time on the back courts. The winners of each match will play at 3 p.m. on Sunday for a berth into the ITA National Team Indoor Championship in Charlottesville, Va., beginning on Feb. 17. Baylor's women's team, along with UCF, UT-Arlington and Wyoming, will follow the same format but will play at 11 a.m., both days.
All told, 60 schools will be competing across the country for the 15 vacant spots at the ITA National Men's Indoor Championship, hosted by the University of Virginia. The 15 universities hosting ITA Kick-Off Weekend events were designated as host sites in order of their year-end ITA team ranking.
The Bears enter the weekend's competition at 1-1 after posting a 7-0 victory over Louisiana and losing to then-eighth-ranked Florida, 6-1. Freshman Mate Zsiga, currently ranked No. 20, leads the Bears with a 16-3 singles mark, while No. 54 Roberto Maytin, a junior, is 11-6 and 52nd-ranked Lars Behlen, a freshman, is 10-6.
New Mexico State, Baylor's first opponent, is 1-1 on the season. The 60th-ranked Aggies suffered a 4-3 loss to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and posted a 7-0 win over Utah State. Forty-second ranked Florida State enters the weekend with a perfect 6-0 mark while No. 37 Rice is 2-2. The Owls defeated Lamar and Prairie View A&M and lost to No. 33 LSU and 19th-ranked Texas.
