June 5, 2015
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State Nittany Lion women's tennis team, under the guidance of head coach Chris Cagle, has earned the right to play in the 2016 ITA Kickoff Weekend. Cagle's squad will be a #2 seed regionally and will take on Brown on Saturday, January 23, at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.
The draft for the prestigious event was held on Wednesday and Penn State received the honor, setting the late-January date and heading to the home courts of the defending National Champion (Vanderbilt). Penn State faces Brown in one match in Nashville while Vanderbilt will tangle with Denver in the other.
"Our team is excited to earn a spot in the ITA Kickoff Weekend," Cagle said. "We know that Brown is a strong opponent from the Ivy League which had an outstanding season from top to bottom this past year. We will be ready to compete against Brown and the entire competition that we will face in Nashville. Having defending national champion Vanderbilt as the host is also great. A quality fall schedule will prepare us for the spring season that lies ahead."
The ITA Kick-off Weekend brings together the nation's top tennis programs each year for the event. The top three teams per region (36 teams) according to the final ITA Division I national team rankings receive first invite with the rest of the 60-team field filled out by the remaining 24 teams (in order based on those final rankings).
Penn State is coming off an outstanding season that saw it post a 13-11 overall record, posting a 9-4 conference mark, including a 1-1 mark in the Big Ten Championship tournament. The Nittany Lions had one of their most successful campaigns and return all but three players, making prospects for the 2015-16 season very bright.