WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - The William and Mary women's tennis team will open the 2012
fall campaign as a split squad with players competing at both the UVa Fall Classic
in Charlottesville, Va., and the Duke Fab Four Invitational at the Cary
Tennis Park in Cary, N.C. Both tournament begin on Friday, Sept. 14, and
conclude on Sunday, Sept. 16.
Seniors
Marlen Mesgarzadeh and
Nina Vulovich, junior
Sydney Smith and freshmen
Leeza Nemchinov and
Jackie Lee will play in the 10-team UVa
Fall Classic, while senior
Anik Cepeda and juniors
Hope Johnson,
Jeltje Loomans
and
Maria Belaya take part in the 12-team Fab Four Invite.
Joining the Tribe in the UVa event will be the host
Cavaliers, Furman, Marshall, UNC Greensboro, Old Dominion, South Carolina, VCU,
Wake Forest and Winthrop. The three-day event will consist of 16-player singles
draws and 16-team doubles brackets. Friday's schedule consists of one round of
doubles followed by two rounds of singles. Saturday will feature two rounds of
doubles followed by one round of singles. Sunday's play will be the final round
of doubles followed by the final round of singles. Each day will begin at 9
a.m. at the Snyder Tennis Center and admission is free. Fans attending the
tournament can park for free at the Culbreth Garage.
In the A-1 Singles Flight at UVA, the Tribe will have senior
Nina Vulovich and
Marlen Mesgarzadeh competing. Vulovich will face the No.
4-ranked freshman in the country according to the ITA in Virginia's Julia
Elbaba at 10:30 a.m. Depending on the outcome, she will meet either Marshall's
Dominika Zaprazna or Darya Yakauleva of VCU in the quarterfinals at 1:30 p.m.,
or in the consolation draw at 1:15 p.m. Mesgarazdeh opens competition against a
Cavalier as well, facing UVA's Caryssa Peretz at 10:30 a.m., before squaring
off with either No. 63-ranked Jaklin Alawi of South Carolina or Furman's Amanda
Murray in the quarterfinals at 1:30 p.m. or the consolation draw at 1:15 p.m.
Freshman
Leeza Nemchinov will start off her Tribe career
against Virginia's Stephanie Nauta at 11:30 a.m. on Friday in the A-2 Singles
Flight. She will face either Winthrop's Yasmine Alkema or Olga Barshchevskaya
of VCU at 1:30 p.m. in the consolation draw or 2 p.m. in the quarterfinals.
Junior
Sydney Smith will compete in the B Singles Flight,
while freshman
Jackie Lee will take part in the Round Robin C Flight. Smith
will face Marshall's Kai Broomfield at noon on Friday, before facing either
Alex Martin of South Carolina or UNC Greensboro's Dilara Yrtkuran at 2:45 p.m.
or 3 p.m. Lee opens her Tribe career against ODU's Juliana Pires at noon on
Friday, before meeting Caitlin Cridland of Winthrop at 3 p.m.
In doubles at Virginia, Mezgarzadeh and Nemchinov will team
in Flight A, while Vulovich and Smith will create the Tribe doubles team in
Flight B. Mesgarzadeh and Nemchinov will meet the Old Dominion duo of Diana Ivanova
and Aleksandra Mitrovska at 9 a.m. on Friday. Vulovich and Smith are slated for
meet Kelly Sullivan and Jenny Porter of Furman at 9 a.m. on Friday.
The Tribe will be joined in the Duke Fab Four Invite by 10
teams that finished last season ranked among the top 30 nationally. The list of
teams competing along with the Tribe includes Duke, Texas, North Carolina,
Alabama, Mississippi, Texas A&M, Purdue, Miami (Fla.), Illinois, Yale and Furman.
The invite will consist of 16-player singles draws and eight-team doubles
brackets. Play will begin at 10 a.m. on Friday with two rounds of doubles
followed by one singles round at 2:30 p.m. Doubles will conclude on Saturday at
9 a.m. followed by the second and third rounds of singles competition, starting
at 10 a.m. The event will wrap up on Sunday with the final rounds of singles at
10:30 a.m.
In doubles action, juniors
Jeltje Loomans and
Maria Belaya, who are ranked No. 12 nationally in the preseason doubles standings,
will compete in the C Doubles Flight and open with North Carolina's Tessa Lyons
and Zoe De Bruycker at 10 a.m. on Friday. They will meet either the Illinois'
team of Kopinski and White or the Texas duo of Aeriel Ellis and Noel Scott in
the semifinals or consolation draw at 11 a.m.
Juniors
Anik Cepeda and
Hope Johnson, who finished the
2011 season among the top 45 in the national doubles rankings, will compete in
the B Doubles Draw. The Tribe duo will meet the No. 22-ranked Texas A&M
team of Cristina Sancu and Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar at 10 a.m. Cepeda and
Johnson will then face either the Yale duo of Madeleine Hamilton and Amber Li
or Caroline Price and Lauren McHale of North Carolina in the semifinals or
consolation draw at 11 a.m.
Loomans will take part in the Blue Singles Flight and will
open against Lauren Kline of Furman at 2:30 p.m. on Friday. In the Black
singles draw, Johnson will square off with North Carolina's Whitney Kay at 2:30
p.m. on Friday. Belaya and Cepeda will both take part in the White Singles
Flight. Cepeda faces No. 10-ranked Mary Anne Macfarlane of Alabama, while
Belaya faces Noel Scott of Texas. Both matches are at 2:30 p.m.