BLACKSBURG, Va. - The William and Mary women's tennis team travels to take
part in the ITA Atlantic Region Championships at the Burrows-Burelson
Tennis Center on the campus of Virginia Tech. The Green and Gold will have three
doubles team in the main draw to go along with three singles players in the
main draw and two in the qualifying singles flight. The event gets underway at
8 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 19 and runs through the regional championship matches on
Tuesday, Oct. 23.
The Green and Gold will have a pair of seeded teams in the
48-team doubles draw as the junior tandem of
Maria Belaya and
Jeltje Loomans,
which is ranked No. 12 nationally, and the Tribe duo of senior
Anik Cepeda and
freshman
Leeza Nemchinov are among the top 16 seeds at the event. As seeded
doubles teams, both Tribe pairs earn a first-round bye and will not begin
competition until Saturday.
Cepeda and Nemchinov are a No. 9-16 seed and will face the
winner of Richmond's Melissa Kandinata and Katya Salas against the Navy duo of Emani Decquir and
Stefanie Ton at 8 a.m. on Saturday. Belaya and Loomans are seeded No. 3 in the regional
event and will open play in the second round at 9 a.m. on Saturday against
either Virginia Tech's Frances Peyton and Mashal Tamory or Morgan State's Arina
Alilueva and Margarita Belyakova.
Senior
Nina Vulovich and junior
Sydney Smith will take part
in the opening round of the main doubles draw, facing the West Virginia team of
Irinka Toiaze and Vivian Tsui at 3:30 p.m. on Friday. The victor advances to
meet No. 9-16 seed Kara Kurcin and Ellie Ball of Marshall at 10 a.m. on
Saturday.
The regional event kicks off with the qualifying singles
draw at 8 a.m. on Friday. Both Vulovich and Smith are seeded in the qualifying
flight and will have the opportunity to advance to the main draw with a pair of
victories on Friday. Vulovich is the top seed in the qualifying flight and will
face Morgan State's Arina Alilueva in the first round at 8 a.m. The winner
advances to a 10:30 a.m. match with a spot in the main singles draw up for grabs.
Smith, who is the qualifying flight's No. 5 seed, will face
West Virginia's Irinka Toidze at 9 a.m. on Friday. The winner will play for a
spot in the main singles draw at 11:30 a.m. as well. The main singles
draw starts on Saturday and will include at least three Tribe players in Cepeda,
Belaya and Nemchinov.
The singles and doubles winners of the
ITA Atlantic Regional will earn a spot in the exclusion USTA/ITA National
Indoor Intercollegiate Championships at the USTA Billie Jean King National
Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y., Nov. 8-11. The National Indoor Intercollegiate
Championship is the second fall national championship event in college tennis
and includes a 32-player singles draw and 20-team doubles bracket for both men
and women.