Photo by John Kelley

[break] Fourth-ranked Georgia will open play in the ITA National Team Indoor Championship against 15th-ranked Columbia Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET. The four-day national championship tournament will be held at the Midtown Athletic Club in Chicago, and the University of Illinois is the host institution. The Bulldogs qualified for the 16-team field by winning two matches against Michigan State and Utah in the ITA Kickoff Jan. 23-25. Georgia will play either No. 5 Illinois or No. 13 California on Saturday.
[break] [break] GEORGIA’S HISTORY AT NATIONAL INDOORS: The Bulldogs are headed to National Indoors for the 12th straight season, and have now failed to do so just one time (2003) since the tournament began in 1973. The Bulldogs won back-to-back National Indoors titles in 2006 and 2007. Incidentally, the 2007 title came at Midtown Athletic Club – the site of this year’s championship. The last time it was held in Chicago in 2009, UGA reached the final for the sixth time. Georgia has 71 wins in the National Indoors, which is the third most of any team.
[break] [break] RANKINGS: Three Georgia players are ranked among the top-21 in the country according to the latest ITA Rankings released Tuesday. Nathan Pasha is the highest-ranked Bulldog at No. 15, Wayne Montgomery is No. 17 and Austin Smith is No. 21. No team rankings were released this week.
[break] [break] NOTEWORTHY: Nathan Pasha won his 200th career match last week against Georgia Tech with a 6-1, 7-5 win over Eduardo Segura. The senior from Atlanta is 200-82 in his UGA career, which is the 14th most wins by a Georgia player since 1986  …  Pasha leads the team with eight wins against ranked opponents, and Wayne Montgomery is second with seven  …  Montgomery has a team-high 21 wins this season. He has played at Nos. 1, 2 and 3 for the Bulldogs already in his freshman campaign  …  Nick Wood has clinched Georgia’s last two wins with three set victories at No. 5 against then-No. 4 UCLA and at Georgia Tech  …  By the end of the ITA National Indoor Championships, Georgia will have already faced at least four teams ranked in the top-15 this season: No. 1 USC, No. 4 UCLA, No. 15 Columbia, and either No. 5 Illinois or No. 13 California.
[break] [break] UP NEXT: Georgia is scheduled to play its first outdoor match of the season Sunday, Feb. 22 at home against Furman University.