The 12th-seeded Baylor men's tennis team will compete in the ITA National Team Indoor Championships Friday through Monday in Seattle, Wash.
BU (6-1) will face fifth-seeded Stanford at 5:30 p.m. CT in the opening round of action to be held at the Seattle Tennis Club.
The Bears, ranked No. 12 in the latest ITA team rankings, will be taking part in the event for the fifth-straight year and the 15th time overall. BU’s best finish at the championships came in 2005 when the Bears knocked off four ranked teams to win the indoor championship title. BU's all-time record at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships is 22-21.
Last season, a 13th-seeded Baylor squad went 1-2 at the event hosted in Charlottesville, dropping its first match against fourth-seeded California before upsetting 10th-seeded Georgia in the consolation round. The team fell to ninth-seeded USC in its final contest of the event.
Baylor is led by a quartet of ranked players on the singles side. Junior Johannes Schretter and sophomore Bjoern Petersen are ranked No. 24 and No. 64 in the country and both boast a dual-match record of 3-2 in singles play, while freshman Sven Lah and redshirt junior Will Little are ranked No. 89 and No. 104 with 5-0 dual-match marks.
The Bears have two ranked doubles tandems as Will Little and Johannes Schretter team together to be No. 12 while Bjoern Petersen and Jimmy Bendeck are No. 45.
BU's matchup with Stanford will be the 13th all-time meeting between the two teams and the first since the Cardinal won its first match of the series over the Bears in 2012. Baylor leads the all-time series 11-1 with all of the matches coming under head coach Matt Knoll.
Stanford, No. 5 in the ITA team rankings, enters the weekend with a 6-0 record on the season with four wins over ranked opponents, including No. 7 UCLA, No. 8 USC and a road win at No. 10 Illinois last Saturday.
The Cardinal has six players ranked, including Tom Fawcett at No. 33, Jack Barber at No. 72, Axel Gellar at No. 75, and David Wilczynski is No. 117. Fawcett and Gellar combine to be No. 32 in doubles along with Sameer Kumar and Michael Genender at No. 55.
The field of this year's ITA Indoor Championships consists of two teams from the Big 12 with Oklahoma State and Baylor claiming the ninth and 12th seeds, respectively.
Baylor is guaranteed to play three matches in the event with a fourth contest coming on Monday for the title if BU wins the first three. If the Bears win Friday's match, they will face the winner of No. 5 North Carolina and No. 12 seed Georgia in the quarterfinal round scheduled for Saturday.
The Bears advanced to this weekend's event by blanking UNLV, 4-0, on Jan. 27 and then besting then-No. 21 Florida State, 4-1, on Jan. 28 in the finals of the ITA Kick-Off Weekend in Waco.
In its last match out, Baylor swept past South Florida, 4-0, on Sunday in Waco.
Live streaming will be available for matches at the Nordstrom Tennis Center only while live scoring will be available at both competition sites.
