10/21/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
The Ohio State women’s tennis team is set to take the court Thursday for the kick-off of the ITA Midwest Regional Championships hosted by Northwestern University. Play begins at 9 a.m. Thursday at the Combe Tennis Center in Evanston, Ill., with singles qualifying action and continues through Tuesday. Updated brackets can be found each afternoon and at the conclusion of each day by clicking the link above or on Northwestern’s athletics website, www.NUsports.com.
The event starts with a 48-player singles qualifier, with eight advancing to the main field of 64. The event includes a 64-doubles main draw that begins at 2 p.m. Friday. The championship matches for singles and doubles will be played Tuesday.
The Midwest Regional is a qualifier for the ITA National Indoor Championships while will be hosted by Yale Nov. 5-8 in New Haven, Conn. The singles finalists and doubles champions from regionals across the country earn autobids into the tournament.
OSU has four players in the singles qualifying bracket. Sophomore Kelsey Haviland is the No. 2 seed in the draw and freshman Gabby Steele is the No. 4 seed. Both begin play with first-round byes. Freshman Fidan Manashirova will open against Amanda Moccia of Western Michigan, while classmate Kara Cecil will face Eastern Michigan’s Mirian Westerink.
Host school Northwestern will be familiar competition for the Buckeyes. In total, seven Big Ten schools will be sending players to the tournament. The complete list of participating schools includes: Akron, Cleveland State, DePaul, Eastern Michigan, Illinois, Illinois-Chicago, Illinois State, Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne, Iowa, Marquette, Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Toledo, Western Michigan, Wisconsin and Youngstown State.
A Look Back
At the regionals last season in East Lansing, Mich., the Buckeye duo of Christina Keesey and Cami Hubbs reached the semifinals in the doubles main draw before losing to the No. 2 seed in the draw. The tandem of Kirsten Flower and Julie Blackmore reached the fourth round before they were knocked out by the No. 7-ranked team in the nation from Northwestern.
In singles three Buckeyes – Flower, Kelsey Haviland and Blackmore – won first-round matches but lost in the second round of the main draw.
