The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) has announced the field for the 2005 USTA/ITA National Team Indoor Championships, and for the 16th time in the past 18 years, Kentucky has qualified for the tourney. The 16-team tournament will be played Feb. 17-20, 2005 at the Midtown Tennis Club in Chicago, Ill. The University of Illinois will serve as the tournament host.

Kentucky will compete in its fourth-consecutive national-team indoor event under Coach Dennis Emery, whose influence helped land the tournament in Kentucky for a number of years. Kentucky played host to the tournament from 1985-98 at the Louisville Tennis Club and again in 2000, 2002 and 2003. Emery has led Kentucky to each of its 17 appearances in the event, which was first played in Madison, Wisc., in 1973. Kentucky holds a 24-28 tournament record and has reached the semifinals on three occasions. Kentucky joins Duke, Illinois, Ole Miss, Stanford and UCLA as the only schools to qualify for the tournament each of the last four seasons.

Kentucky dropped a pair of matches to UCLA and Harvard before setting aside Boise State at the 2004 USTA/ITA National Team Indoor Championships in Seattle.

Witten, Martirosyan Featured in ITA Regional Rankings

Seniors Jesse Witten and Tigran Martirosyan have landed spots in the ITA Southeast Regional singles rankings. Witten owns the No. 2 slot in the regional rankings and a No. 3 national ranking. Martirosyan comes in at No. 18 regionally and No. 53 nationally.

Witten, Martirosyan and the rest of the Wildcats return to action next month at the SEC Indoors in New Orleans, La.