Hokie ClubBLACKSBURG, Va. – Six members of the Virginia Tech women’s tennis team will travel to Norfolk, Va. to participate in the United States Tennis Association/Intercollegiate Tennis Association Women’s Atlantic Region Championships, October 21-24. The event, hosted by Old Dominion University, features some of the top players in the nation and will be held at the Folkes-Stevens Indoor Tennis Center.
The singles and doubles champions from the NCAA Division I USTA/ITA Regional Championships will advance to the 2010 USTA/ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, taking place November 4-7, at the new indoor facilities at the USTA-Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, located in Flushing, N.Y. Columbia University will serve as the tournament host.
The tournament begins on Thursday, Oct. 21, with two rounds of qualifying singles competition followed by one round of the main draw doubles. Friday’s schedule will feature two rounds of singles followed by a round of doubles with the schedule reversed for Saturday.
In Thursday’s singles qualifying, Emily Lauten (So., Marietta, Ga.) will face Arina Allueva (Old Dominion) at 9 a.m., with the winner playing again at 11:30 a.m. Isel Martinez-Marcos (Fr., Esparreguera, Spain) plays Fernanda Perrotta (Penn State) at 10 a.m., and the winner will take to the court again at 12:30 p.m. Lauten and Martinez-Marcos must win both matches to advance into Friday’s singles main draw.
Tech has four players already in the main draw who will not see action until Friday. Yasmin Hamza (Sr., Cairo, Egypt), the No. 11 seed, will face Aandria Carr (Towson) at 11 a.m., while Holly Johnson (Sr., Tallahassee, Fla.) battles No. 13 seed Stephanie Wetmore (Georgetown) in a noon match. Elsewhere, Shannon Betts (Jr., Newnan, Ga.) plays No. 7 seed Hana Tomijanovic (Virginia) in the first round at 12:30 p.m., and Martha Blakely (Jr., Reading, Pa.) takes on No. 8 seed Kateryna Yergina (VCU) at 3 p.m.
Only one of the three Tech doubles teams will see action on Thursday. Lauten/Martinez-Marcos will play Amanda Griffin/Kourtney Howell (Navy) at 3 p.m. Tech’s other two doubles teams of Hamza/Johnson, seeded No. 5, and Betts/Blakely, the No. 8 seeds, received first round byes and will not see action until Friday.
Twenty-four USTA/ITA Regional Championships for NCAA Division I men and women are taking place over the last two weekends of October at campuses throughout the country.
Results are available at http://tennislink.usta.com/tournaments/TournamentHome/Tournament.aspx?T=100947.