Oct. 22, 2006
FORT WORTH, Texas - On Sunday afternoon at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center, the TCU women's tennis team moved one step closer to claiming its third-straight fall regional title in either singles or doubles.
TCU interim head coach Jefferson Hammond was an assistant last season when Helena Besovic and Anna Sydorska won the 2005 Southwest Regional Championships doubles title. It was the first regional doubles title in school history for the Horned Frogs and amazingly, the pair came in as the No. 13 seed. In 2004 and also when Hammond was an assistant, Besovic won the singles title after earning a fifth-seed.
On Monday, the Frogs' second-seeded pair and No. 24-ranked team in the nation - Ana Cetnik and Sydorska - will look to make it three in a row for TCU.
The tandem will first have to get past Baylor's fourth-seeded team of Lenka Broosova and Zuzana Cerna in the semi-finals. The match is set to begin at approximately 11:30 a.m. In the other semi-finals match, No. 7 Hannah Robinson and Megan Falcon of LSU will meet No. 3 Anna Lubinsky and Nicki Mechem of Texas A&M.
The doubles main draw finale will begin at approximately 1:30 p.m.
"I am very happy with the great effort of all our players," said Hammond, who is assisted by Colin Foster. "We continue to grow and get better everyday. I look forward to another fun day on the courts Monday and I hope we put up a good fight."
If history repeats itself, Cetnik and Sydorska are in good shape heading into the semi-finals. On Sept. 17, the duo defeated their upcoming opponent 8-4 in the doubles finals of the Baylor Fall Invitational.
In singles back draw action Sunday, the Horned Frogs had a productive day, although in some ways it came at the expense of each other. Seventh-seeded Cetnik slipped past her teammate Karine Ionesco in the semi-finals by scores of 6-3, 7-6(3). Cetnik will battle higher-seeded Anna Blagodarova (No. 6) in the finals of the back draw. Blagodarova defeated TCU freshman Nina Munch-Soegaard 7-5, 6-0 to get to the finals. In the doubles main draw quarterfinals, Cetnik and Sydorska defeated the Aggies' Blagodarova and Druss 8-3.
TCU is hosting the Wilson/Intercollegiate Tennis Association Women's Southwest Regional Championships October 19-23. The singles finalists and doubles champion from this event will earn spots in the November 2-5 ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships hosted by The Ohio State University at the Racquet Club of Columbus.
In addition to host TCU, the women's event features the top players from Division I schools: Baylor, Centenary, Houston, Lamar, Louisiana-Lafayette, Lousiana-Monroe, LSU, McNeese State, North Texas, Rice, Sam Houston State, SMU, Southeastern Louisiana, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas A&M-CC, UTA, Texas-Pan American, Texas-San Antonio, Texas Tech, Texas State and UTEP.
Eighteen Wilson/ITA Regional Championships for NCAA Division I men and women are taking place over these last two weekends of October at campuses throughout the country.
The 2006 ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, the nation's premier collegiate indoor tennis tournament, is the second of three national championship events for college tennis this season. The first events - the Riviera/ITA Women's and Polo Ralph Lauren Men's All-American Championships - were held earlier this month, and the third event is season-ending NCAA Championships in May. The ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships feature a 32-player singles field and 16-team doubles field for men and women, including: qualifiers from these Wilson/ITA Regional Championships held across the country, the ITA National Small College champions, top performers from the ITA All-American Championships and at-large card selections made by the ITA National Tournament Committee. Overall, more than 7,000 players from nearly 600 schools participate annually in the ITA Regional and National Intercollegiate Championships.
