The UW women's tennis team will host 16 of the best tennis squads in the nation for the ITA National Team Indoor Tournament this weekend at Nielsen Tennis Stadium.
The No. 68 Badgers will move into the busy weekend of tournament play after sustaining two difficult losses to No. 63 Old Dominion and No. 24 William and Mary, both by a score of 5-2, causing the Badgers to fall to 2-3 on the 2009 season. As play begins early Friday morning, they face another east-coast team, Duke, in the first round of the draw.
I think first of all we need to take last weekend's learning experience and apply it to this week,"" Badgers head coach Brian Fleishman said. ""Meaning that we know that every match we play is going to be really tough. There is nobody that we can overlook, underestimate, and I think we prepared pretty well for Duke and we know what to expect.""
The No. 9 Blue Devils are undefeated after five games and enter the tournament off a 4-2 victory over No. 32 Ohio State in the tournament's first regional qualifying round after failing to qualify last year.
Although it will be the tournament's 22nd consecutive year on Madison courts, for the first time in its history the field will be comprised of 15 regional qualifiers and the hosting Badgers.
Previously, the tournament invited teams to participate based on the previous season's records and regional representation. However, this year the ITA opened competition to 64 teams nationally through 15 regional qualifying tournaments where the winner advanced to the national tournament in Madison, making for one of the most competitive draws in tournament history.
""I think that every team that came here this weekend is expecting to win a national title,"" Fleishman said. ""We're trying to see how we can match up against some of the top teams in the country and kind of gauge what we need to do and where we need to go.""
Qualifiers this year include 12 of 15 regional No. 1 teams, including Big Ten powerhouse Northwestern (4-0), which is currently ranked No. 1 in the country and boasts the nation's best singles player, Maria Mosolova.
Among the 12 teams that return from last year's tournament is undefeated No. 7 Georgia Tech (5-0), which is looking for its third straight ITA team title after defeating Northwestern 4-2 last year. Other teams vying for the title this year include No. 2. California (3-0), No. 3 UCLA (4-0), No. 4 Baylor (2-0) and No. 5 Stanford (3-0).
In this competitive field, 57 of 128 ranked singles will make appearances this weekend, ready to threaten the Badger ladies, but despite last weekend's tough losses, Fleishman said the girls are ready.
""You can take a loss and look at it different ways,"" he said. ""You can either lose confidence or try to go home and work on things to build confidence, and I think that's what we did this past week.""
UW will open play Friday against Duke at 9 a.m. The tournament will continue through Monday, Feb. 16.
