No. 17 Sooners Set for ITA Kickoff Weekend

NORMAN – The No. 17 Oklahoma men's tennis team is set to compete in ITA Kickoff Weekend in Berkeley, Calif. on Jan. 23 and 24. No. 15 California is the host with No. 24 UCF and No. 20 USC also competing at the Berkeley site.

The Sooners face the Golden Bears on Friday at 4 p.m. CT at the Hellman Tennis Complex to begin the weekend. UCF and USC compete at 1 p.m. CT. The winners of the first two matchups compete on Saturday at 4 p.m. CT while the remaining two teams face off at 1 p.m. CT.

The winners of the 4 p.m. CT match advance to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships. The tournament will be split between Dallas and Waco, Texas from February 13-17.

MATCH DAY BASICS

Oklahoma's match against California can be followed through live stats or live stream. Additional information about the weekend can be found here.

LAST TIME OUT

Oklahoma heads into ITA Kickoff Weekend with a 2-0 start to the season. The Sooners upset then-No. 11 Arizona, 4-2, in front of a record-breaking home crowd on Friday before topping Abilene Christian, 6-1, the following Sunday.

At last year's tournament, the Sooners advanced to the championship match against Stanford after topping Tulsa 4-0. Oklahoma fell short against Stanford, narrowly missing the qualifying mark for the ITA National Team Indoor Championships.

IN THE RANKINGS

Oklahoma heads to Berkeley with a No. 17 team rank, improving from the No. 21 ranking at the start of the season.

Three Sooners sit inside the top-75 with Alvarez at No. 46, Lacides at No. 57 and sophomore Asahi Harazaki at No. 74.

Rodriguez and Kimhi round out the ranked Sooners at the No. 30 spot in doubles.

PLAYER TO WATCH

Freshman Johan Rodriguez competed in his first dual matches as a Sooner and came away with two dominant singles wins at the four position. In the match against Arizona, the freshman topped No. 58 Filip Gustafsson, 6-1, 6-2, to put the first point on the board for the Sooners. In OU's match against Abilene Christian, Rodriguez contributed yet again to the victory, winning 6-0, 6-0. Rodriguez was tabbed as the No. 2 newcomer in the nation by the ITA and currently sits at No. 30 in the ITA doubles ranks.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS

California is currently 4-0 on the season with wins over Hawaii, Gonzaga, Cal Poly and San Diego State.

UCF is also 4-0 with wins over FGCU, Louisiana, USF and Mercer to start the season.

USC has a 2-1 record heading into the weekend. The Trojans topped San Diego State and UC San Diego but fell to San Diego.

UP NEXT

The Sooners head to Tulsa to take on the Golden Hurricane on Wednesday, Feb. 4 at 6 p.m. at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center.

FOLLOW THE SOONERS

For updates, follow @OU_MTennis on Instagram and X or like Oklahoma Men's Tennis on Facebook.