Coming off their first ever appearance in the ITA National Team Indoor Championship finals, No. 3 Texas will take its talents to New York this weekend to replicate their hard-fought run last year.
The Longhorns began last year’s tournament as the No. 8 seed and kicked off their first match by beating No. 9 Wake Forest in a 4-0 victory. From there, they faced very tough matchups against No. 1 Ohio State and No. 4 Michigan in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively.
Both matches were incredibly tight, but Texas pulled through to win each match 4-3. However, in the finals against No. 3 TCU, Texas failed to prevail like it did against the other highly ranked opponents and fell short to the Horned Frogs, 0-4.
In other tournaments last year, the shortcomings ensued. After being the No. 1 team heading into the Big 12 tournament in 2023, Texas once again fell to TCU in the finals, 1-4, and bowed out of the season with a 1-4 loss to Virginia in the semifinals of the NCAA tournament.
Friday marks Texas’ first team tournament of the season, where it looks to flip its tournament script to bring a championship.
This season marked the sixth consecutive season Texas qualified for ITA nationals. The Longhorns won the ITA Kick-Off Weekend regional tournament in Austin two weeks ago, beating UTSA 4-1 and Oklahoma State 4-1. The team’s most recent win over Florida on Saturday, which was played indoors due to inclement weather, provided solid match preparation as they continue to gain momentum.
Texas is off to a strong start this season, with only one loss coming against then No. 1 Virginia. The team has excelled in singles, putting up a combined record of 29–7 so far this season. Freshman Gilles-Arnaud Bailly has been sensational, not yet dropping a match thus far as he proves to be a valuable young talent for the Longhorns and a critical piece in the upcoming tournament.
Doubles play, however, has been a slight struggle with a current record of 4–3. Although it amounts to just one point, it has already proved critical, with the point proving to be the difference in the Virginia match. Against the top teams in the country, Texas will look to replicate its singles success in the doubles department next weekend.
Texas is 1–1 against top 15 opponents this season, with a win over then No. 15 Stanford and the aforementioned loss to Virginia. With three top-five matches coming up against No. 2 TCU, No. 1 Ohio State and No. 5 USC, playing some of the elite teams in an early-season tournament will provide Texas with insight as to where they stand going to New York to seek their first ever indoor title.
