WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - William and Mary women's tennis juniors
Maria Belaya and
Jeltje Loomans earned a lofty national doubles ranking in the Campbell/ITA
Division I Preseason Rankings, released on Friday. The duo was the highest
ranked team in both the Atlantic Region and the CAA at No. 12 in the country.
Along with their national ranking, Belaya and Loomans earned
one of 20 at-large spots in the 24-team main draw of the Riviera/ITA
All-American Championships. Both players were also selected to the 64-player
prequalifying singles draw at the event. Last season, Belaya and Loomans reeled off three
win in the prequalifying doubles draw before falling in the first round of the
32-team qualifying bracket. The pair also took part in the prequalifying
singles draw.
The All-American Championships is the first of three
national individual championship events for collegiate tennis. For the 28th
year, the Riviera Tennis Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif., will serve as the host
site. The national event
is set to begin on Saturday, Sept. 29 with prequalifying singles and doubles
matches, which will once again be hosted by UCLA. The qualifying draw will be Oct. 2-3 with main draw action slated
for Thursday, Oct. 4, through Sunday, Oct. 7, at the Riviera Tennis Club. Eight players
from the prequalifying singles draw will advance to the 64-player qualifying
bracket, where they will compete for eight spots in the 32-player main draw.
Belaya and Loomans are the first Tribe doubles team to earn an at-large spot in the main draw at the All-American Championships since current WTA pro
Megan Moulton-Levy and Katarina Zoricic advanced to the quarterfinals in 2007. The current No. 12 national ranking for the
Tribe duo is also the best in the preseason since Moulton-Levy and Zoricic
were preseason No. 1 in 2007. The last Tribe player to compete in the main draw
at the All-American Championships was Ragini Acharya, who played in the main
singles draw in both 2007 and 2008.
In 2012, Belaya and Loomans earned First-Team All-CAA honors
and finished the year with a 20-5 mark in doubles to go along with a national ranking of No. 34. The duo moved up as high as No. 20 in the country
last season and won 13 straight matches during the spring. They also competed in the NCAA Doubles Championship to close out the season.
W&M opens the 2012 fall campaign at both the Duke and UVA Fall
Invitational this weekend. Both events begin on Friday, Sept. 14, through
Sunday, Sept. 16.
