NCAA D1 Sweet Sixteen: Matches To Watch

We’re into the final stretch for the NCAA D1 team finals at Wake Forest this weekend. Last weekend’s first round play was as exciting as promised - a number of upsets including No. 4 Stanford men with a loss to Mississippi. This is the first Sweet Sixteen appearance for Ole Miss since 2012. As for the women, Florida State had a huge win over rival and 2017 Division 1 Women’s National Champion. Florida State will take on Tulsa in round 16. Team UTR took a look at the Power 6 ratings of each team to highlight matches to watch this weekend. The Power 6 rating is the sum of the UTRs of the top six individual players, rounded to the nearest integer, which gives a real-time sense of the skill of each team. All the information on the NCAA Championships throughout the remainder of the tournament can be found at the championship central page. All the matches will feature live scoring and live video. Let’s take a look at some of the matches to watch on the Road to the NCAA’s! For the Women: No. 4 Georgia Tech vs No. 12 Pepperdine No. 12 ITA/Oracle ranked Pepperdine bested both Idaho and No. 18 Kansas to enter into the Sweet Sixteen. No. 4 Georgia Tech heads into the Sweet Sixteen for its third straight year, beating Eastern Kentucky and Winthrop with a pair of 4-0 wins in the NCAA regionals last weekend. Since 2004, Pepperdine and Georgia Tech have met four times, splitting for a 2-2 all-time record. Their fourth meeting was earlier this season at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships, where the Pepperdine Waves won with a 4-2 result. The Pepperdine women have a Power 6 of 70 and Georgia Tech comes in at 69. The match will be played Thursday May 17th at 7 PM ET. No. 5 University of Mississippi vs No. 12 UCLA In a rematch from earlier this year, the No. 5 Ole Miss women's tennis team will face No. 12 UCLA in the Sweet Sixteen Round this Thursday. The Rebels are no strangers to the final rounds of the NCAA Championships; they have advanced to the Sweet Sixteen nine times and the Elite Eight four times. Ole Miss beat out Missouri State 4-0 and took on Wichita State 4-2 to earn their spot in this year’s Sweet Sixteen. As for the UCLA Bruins, the women are coming off of a 4-0 win over No. 25 Baylor in the second round and a 4-0 win over Fresno State in the first round. This is the Bruins' 17th trip to the Sweet 16 since 1999, and UCLA's 33rd overall in 37 years of the NCAA Tournament. The team has advanced to the quarterfinals 23 times in its 32 prior Sweet 16 matchups. Ole Miss has a Power 6 of 67 with the UCLA team coming in with a Power 6 of 69. The match will be played at 7 PM ET on Thursday, May 17th. For the Men: No. 8 University of Illinois vs No. 9 Texas Christian University The No. 8 University of Illinois men will take on No.9 ranked TCU in what is sure to be a battle on the court. TCU enters the Sweet Sixteen coming off of a second round 4-0 sweep of No.33 ranked Oregon. This is the fourth straight year that TCU will make an appearance in the Sweet Sixteen. As for the Fighting Illini, the men’s team swept Vanderbilt 4-0 last Sunday and will be making its 16th appearance at the Sweet Sixteen in program history. Both teams have a Power 6 coming in at 84. The match will be played on Friday May 18th at 4 pm ET at Wake Forest. No. 2 UCLA vs No. 15 University of Michigan The No. 2 UCLA Bruins will take on the No. 15 ranked Michigan Wolverines this Friday at 9 AM ET. This is Michigan’s third-straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament, their first in the Sweet Sixteen since 2008, and fifth Sweet Sixteen appearance in program history. The Wolverines routed No. 25 Notre Dame with a 4-0 win last Sunday in the regionals and are looking for their first-ever win against UCLA. The No. 2 UCLA Bruins are off to the Sweet Sixteen for the 42nd year in program history and looking for their 17th NCAA title, the most recent of which was in 2005. UCLA is coming off of a pair of sweeps of Idaho and the University of San Diego in the first and second round regionals last weekend. University of Michigan has a Power 6 of 83 and UCLA has a Power 6 of 84. The match will be held at 9 AM on Friday May 18th at Wake Forest. Team UTR will be providing updates throughout the NCAA Tournament. Follow along @MyUTR on Twitter and Instagram and check out #RoadToNCAAs for real-time updates from the teams competing in the tournament!