Miami to Host ITA Kick-Off Weekend For Fourth Straight Year

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – For the fourth straight season, the University of Miami women’s tennis team will serve as one of 16 national host schools for the ITA Division I Women’s Kick-Off Weekend in January.

The Hurricanes, who were selected as the regional’s top seed, will host No. 2 seed USF, No. 3 seed UC Santa Barbara and No. 4 seed Cal State Northridge at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center the weekend of January 27-30, 2012. The winner of the regional will move on to play in the ITA National Team Indoor Championships, which will be held from Feb. 17-20 in Charlottesville, Va.

Each of the previous three seasons, Miami won the ITA Kick-Off to move into the national indoors. This past season, the Hurricanes defeated second-seeded Arizona State to advance.

In 2012, Miami will face Northridge in the first round, while USF will take on Santa Barbara. Two matches are guaranteed, with the winners and losers facing one another the following day.

UM’s match against Northridge will be the first between the two programs all-time. The Canes won their only meeting with UCSB in 2001 and own a 40-3 all-time mark versus USF.

In addition to Miami, North Carolina, Duke, Clemson, Georgia Tech and Florida State give the ACC six of the 16 host sites for the kick-off weekend.

The Canes will be coming off their third straight NCAA quarterfinal appearance and their fifth in the last six years when they take to the courts next season.

The remainder of the 2011-12 schedule will be set at a later date.