WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - For the first time since 2012, the Purdue men's tennis team has been selected to play in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend Saturday and Sunday. The 47th-ranked Boilermakers (2-0) will travel to Columbus, Ohio, as the site's No. 3-seed, to take on No. 41 and second-seeded Tulsa (3-1) Saturday at 2 p.m. ET at the Varsity Tennis Center on the campus of Ohio State. A live video stream and live scoring will be available here throughout the two-day event.
The ITA Kick-Off Weekend features 60 men's teams competing across the country for berths to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships, to be hosted in February by the University of Illinois at Midtown Athletic Club in Chicago, Ill.
Top-seeded and fifth-ranked Ohio State (4-0) and No. 39 Auburn (2-0) will square off Saturday at 10 a.m., prior to the Purdue/Tulsa matchup. Saturday's losing teams will compete in the consolation match Sunday at 10 a.m., with the winners battling for a berth to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships at 1 p.m.
In 2012 when the Boilermakers last appeared in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend, they went 1-1, falling to Texas A&M (6-1) and beating Princeton (4-2). Senior Diego Acosta is the Purdue player that has previously played in the event, therefore this could be quite a change in scenery for some of the Boilermakers. Not to mention this will be the first time the Old Gold & Black have faced Tulsa in program history. The same can be said if Purdue were to meet Auburn on Sunday.
Of the four teams, Ohio State and Auburn carry majority of the rankings. For Auburn, three of their singles players are ranked: No. 38 Lukas Ollert, No. 96 Maxime Hinnisdaels and No. 110 Marko Krickovic. The Tigers also boast the 55th-ranked doubles tandem of Ollert and Krickovic.
As for Ohio State, they also have a trio of ranked singles players in No. 21 Chris Diaz, No. 66 Ralf Steinbach and No. 89 Mikael Torpegaard. The Buckeyes have two ranked pairs in No. 4 Kevin Metka and Steinbach as well as No. 27 Hunter Callahan and Diaz.
The Boilermakers enter the weekend as underdogs on paper with only one ranked singles player in sophomore Ricky Medinilla, who checks in at No. 84. Tulsa does not have a ranked singles player or duo.
Purdue started their season off on the right track with 6-1 wins over both Eastern Illinois and IUPUI on Monday.