The 2016-17 season may have just wrapped up but there’s a pretty big event taking place this week that will help set the stage for the 2017-18 season. The ITA Kick-Off Weekend Draft will be held on Wednesday and Thursday from noon to 3 p.m. ET with the women taking center stage on Wednesday while the men make their picks on Thursday. The final ITA team rankings determine the 15 regional hosts plus they determine the order of selection for everyone else. The National Team Indoor Championship host get an automatic bid so the Washington men and Wisconsin women get the free pass.
There are only a handful of lower ranked men’s teams (#26 Cornell/#44 Rice) that are skipping the event but on the women’s side they’ll be three top 20 teams, including No. 2 Stanford, that will take a pass. Notable women’s teams skipping the KOW are #16 Texas A&M, #17 Baylor, #24 Tennessee, #29 Notre Dame, #43 Alabama, #48 Harvard, and #49 Cornell. There are some schools that are taking finals that week so that accounts for a few but for the others it comes down to either not wanting to play indoors or lining up matches that are deemed more winnable.
The ITA will have a live event on its Facebook page beginning at noon each day plus selections will be updated on the ITA’s event page.
Sean McCaffrey Hired As Head Women’s Tennis Coach At Georgia Southern
RELEASE: https://t.co/wpfrCIy3lI pic.twitter.com/Bvji83h59A
— GS Women’s Tennis (@GSAthletics_WT) June 5, 2017
Georgia Southern Athletic Director Tom Kleinlein announced the hiring of Sean McCaffrey as the Eagles new women’s head coach. McCaffrey had been the head coach at D2’s Armstrong State for the last three years but it was announced earlier this year that ASU and GSU were merging together and in the process all of ASU’s athletic programs were going to be discontinued. McCaffrey won two national titles in his three seasons in Savannah while winning 93% of his matches. McCaffrey replaces Michele Stanford who stepped down after going 33-29 (.532) in three seasons.
University of Incarnate Word interim Athletic Director Mark Papich announced that former All-American Jonas Andersson will be taking over as the new men’s head coach. Andersson played at UIW from 1994-97 while the school was still at the NAIA level and since graduating he has been a tennis pro at several country clubs in Texas and California. Andersson replaces Pierce Brandan who stepped down earlier this season after going 17-43.
Northern Colorado’s Ben Gendron had the interim tag removed from his title and is now officially the men’s head coach. Gendron took over as the interim coach last August and did enough to get the promotion from UNC’s Athletic Director Darren Dunn. The full release is available here.
Robert Farah (USC ’10) advanced to his first Grand Slam semifinal when he and Juan Sebastian Cabal defeated Julio Peralta and Horacio Zeballos in the quarterfinals of the men’s doubles draw at the French Open. Peralta and Zeballos took the opening set 7-6 (1) and then they served for the match up 6-5 in the second and had a pair of match points but Farah and Cabal got the break to force another tiebreak. Farah and Cabal fought off another match point at *5-6 in the tiebreak and after taking the tiebreak 8-6 they’d roll 6-0 in the third to get the win. Farah and Cabal will meet the winner of the Venus/Harrison vs. Dodig/Granollers match.
Teams skipping the Kickoff could also be due to missed class time and budgets?
hmm interesting, did not realize Ga Southern had opened. Surprised by the resignation, but it appears to be a solid hire.