2024 ITA Kickoff Weekend Hosted by UK Men’s Tennis

Kentucky men’s tennis team has been named as the ITA Kickoff Weekend host for the second season consecutively. The Wildcats is the fifth top seed for the upcoming competition, which will take place at the Boone Tennis Center on January 26-27, 2024. The competition will bring together the top 60 teams from the previous season’s final ITA rankings across fifteen host sites. Each regional includes four schools with the victorious teams advancing to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships in February.
In the past two seasons, Kentucky has qualified for indoor nationals and reached the semis in 2023. During last year’s Kickoff, the Wildcats beat Liberty and Notre Dame to secure their spot in the national tournament. The Wildcats will be hosting No. 49 Alabama, No. 52 Nebraska, and No. 64 Notre Dame, respectively.
Alabama, SEC’s familiar opponent, won 12 and lost 15 games last season. During the 2022 campaign, Kentucky beat Crimson Tide twice, including a victory in the SEC Tournament quarter-finals. Bama’s sophomore Filip Planinsek was named Second Team All-SEC, while freshman Matias Ponce de Leon made it to the SEC All-Freshman Team.
Nebraska is another school that will be journeying to Lexington for ITA Kickoff Weekend. The Cornhuskers had a 13-10 season in 2022, and their Assistant Coach, Peter Kobelt, was a former Volunteer Assistant at Kentucky from 2020 to 2022 and is making a return to Bluegrass.
Notre Dame is the last school that makes up the region; they will be back in Kentucky for ITA Kickoff Weekend for the second year in a row. In the previous year, Notre Dame defeated Washington in Lexington before losing to the Wildcats 4-1 in the regional final. The Fighting Irish saw a fruitful year with a 13-14 record and were led by freshman standout, Sebastian Dominko, an ITA All-American in his debut season of collegiate tennis.