ITA Names Sites, Dates for D-III National Team Indoor Championships

The Intercollegiate Tennis Association has confirmed the eight men's teams and eight women's teams that will participate in the 2016 ITA Division III National Team Indoor Championships. The 16 programs were chosen based on their final 2015 Oracle/ITA national ranking.

Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, will host the men's tournament at the Cleveland Racquet Club, Feb. 19-21, 2016, while DePauw University out of Greencastle, Indiana, is the site for the women's draw, which runs from Feb. 26-28.

"The 2016 ITA Division III National Indoor Championship fields for both women and men will showcase many of the nation's top programs and players," said ITA Chief Executive Officer Timothy Russell. "The ITA Division III National Indoor Championships speak to the breadth and depth of all of college tennis and the ITA's commitment to serving student-athletes at all levels."

The men's field features six institutions that concluded the 2014-15 season ranked in the national top-10, with Washington University - St. Louis (3rd), Pomona-Pitzer (4th) and Emory (5th) possessing top-5 rankings. Trinity (TX) (8th) is the defending champion, as the Tigers defeated Emory 5-4 in last year's final. Chicago (6th), Kenyon (10th), Carnegie Mellon (11) and Case Western Reserve (14) comprise the remainder of the men's draw.

All eight teams in the women's championship finished the 2014-15 season inside the top-15 of the national rankings, including four in the top-10. Johns Hopkins has won the ITA Division III National Championship each of the past three years and the Blue Jays concluded the 2015 season ranked 11th nationally. Carnegie Mellon (6th), Pomona-Pitzer (7th), MIT (9th), Washington & Lee (10th), Sewanee (12th), Washington University - St. Louis (13th) and DePauw (14th) round out the women's selections.

Seeding for both draws will be based on the November 2015 Oracle/ITA Preseason Rankings. All participants will play three matches and each dual contest will be played to completion, starting with doubles and ending with singles. Singles matches will be best-of-three sets, except when the dual match has been decided, in which case a third-set super tiebreak will be used.