The Baylor men's tennis team will host Florida State, Purdue and UNLV on Jan. 27-28, 2018, at the Hurd Tennis Center for the ITA Kick-Off Weekend, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced Thursday.
The three visiting schools will travel to Waco for a four-team tournament with No. 1 seed Baylor facing No. 4 seed UNLV and the second-seeded Florida State Seminoles playing No. 3 seed Purdue on Saturday, Jan. 27. The winners will come back the following day on Sunday, Jan. 28 to play for a berth in the ITA National Team Indoor Championship. Baylor is one of 15 men's host sites around the country for the Kick-Off Weekend.
The three teams chose to come to Waco as part of a draft selection process that was completed on Thursday. The higher ranked teams picked locations first.
The national indoor team championship will then be held Feb. 16-19, 2018, in Seattle, Wash.
As a team, the Bears completed the season ranked No. 9, after going 23-8 and reaching the round of 16 at the NCAA Championships.
Florida State concluded the 2017 season at 18-12 and in the second round of the NCAA Championships. The Seminoles were ranked No. 31 to close the year.
Purdue lost in the first round of the NCAA Championships, but enjoyed a 20-13 record in 2017 to wrap the year at No. 41. In the country.
UNLV was 19-9 last season, after advancing to the final of the Mountain West Tournament.
Baylor is 3-1 all-time against Florida State and 3-0 under Matt Knoll, while BU is 6-0 all-time against Purdue. Purdue head coach, Pawel Gajdzik, is a former Baylor player and coach. The Bears have never faced UNLV.
Baylor last hosted the event in 2016, beating UC Irvine (4-1) and Oregon (4-2) to advance to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships. It was the six time the Bears have hosted the event and they are 12-0 in home matches during the event.
Last season, BU played its first road ITA Kick-Off Weekend matches, winning 4-3 at Texas A&M and then beating SMU 4-0 to advance to the national tournament for the seventh time in nine years. Baylor elected not to participate in the event in the other two years.
