Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
San Diego Hosts Men's Tennis in Pre-Ivy Finale
March 17, 2015 | Men's Tennis
In the team's final matches before the Ivy League season begins a week from Saturday against Penn, the Princeton men's tennis team will have a challenging week in San Diego during its spring trip to the Golden State.
The Tigers will play in the Hilton San Diego Mission Valley Spring Classic, co-hosted by the University of San Diego and San Diego State. Princeton will open play Thursday at 1 p.m. ET against Indiana.
The Tigers will then face either Denver or San Diego Friday at USD and one of Harvard, Middle Tennessee State, San Diego State or Drake Saturday. Times for Friday and Saturday as well as Saturday's site will be determined later. An opening bracket is available at the PDF link on this page.
After the latest ITA rankings came out Tuesday, the bracket was assembled with Princeton drawing the effective third seed as the No. 32-ranked team in the nation, behind only No. 22 Harvard and No. 30 San Diego in the event. Seven of the eight teams in the draw are ranked, and all seven of those are ranked between Nos. 22 and 43.
Princeton will open with No. 39 Indiana, giving Princeton an opportunity for its first win over a Big Ten opponent since Michigan State in 2013. Penn State has edged Princeton twice since then. After opening the season with wins over Cornell and Dartmouth as part of a 6-1 start, Indiana has been up and down since then while facing teams both inside and outside of major conferences, with the Hoosiers coming off a win over in-state rival Ball State after losses to Texas Tech and Northwestern.
Princeton will bring a ranked player, senior Zack McCourt, ranked 119th, and a ranked doubles pair, McCourt and sophomore Tom Colautti, ranked 56th, into the event. The Tigers have been away from formal competition since March 8, when the team swept a home twinbill from Binghamton and Army. Princeton will take a four-match win streak to San Diego and will have opportunities for its first win against a ranked opponent since Feb. 21 before losses to then-No. 24 South Florida and then-No. 39 Penn State.
This will be Princeton's second straight and third overall appearance in the five-year-old event. Though the Tigers were swept in the inaugural edition in 2011, Princeton went 1-2 last season, getting a win over San Diego State between losses to Drake and Purdue. Thursday's match against Indiana will start at 1 p.m. Eastern Time, 10 a.m. local time at the University of San Diego.
Capsules on the Tigers and the rest of the draw are below.
| (in ITA-rank order) |  Harvard |
 San Diego |
 Princeton |
 Drake |
 San Diego State |
 Indiana |
 Denver |
 Middle Tenn. St. |
| Match Details | Possible Saturday opponent | Possible Friday opponent | Possible Saturday opponent | Possible Saturday opponent | Thursday, 1 p.m. ET | Possible Friday opponent | Possible Saturday opponent | |
| 2015 Dual-Match Record | 11-3 | 9-4 | 13-3 | 16-5 | 10-4 | 10-5 | 8-5 | 9-5 |
| ITA Team Ranking | 22 | 30 | 32 | 33 | 38 | 39 | 43 | NR |
| ITA-Ranked Players | Denis Nguyen (47) Nguyen/Brian Yeung (10) |
Uros Petronijevic (58) Filip Vittek (81) Jordan Angus/Vittek (41) |
Zack McCourt (119) Tom Colautti/McCourt (56) |
Ben Lott (38) Alen Salibasic (42) |
Freddy Gelbrich/Hendrik Jebens (63) | None | Henry Craig (93) Diogo Rocha (97) Craig/Alex Gasson (43) |
None |
| All-Time vs. Princeton | Harvard leads 55-54 | USD leads 8-3 | Drake leads 1-0 | SDSU leads 10-3 | Have not met | Series tied 2-2 | Have not met | |
| Last Meeting | 2015 (Harvard won 4-2 at Harvard, ECACs) | 2009 (USD won 4-3 at USD) | 2014 (Drake won 4-2 at USD) | 2014 (Princeton won 4-3 at SDSU) | Have not met | 2015 (Princeton won 5-2 at Denver) | Have not met |