Three Buckeyes Travel to Riviera/ITA All-American Championships – Ohio State Buckeyes
10/1/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State’s women’s tennis team kicks off its slate of fall tournaments at the Riviera/ITA Women’s All-American Championships Saturday in Los Angeles. The tournament commences at UCLA with pre-qualifying matches Saturday and Sunday.
Play then moves to the Riviera Tennis Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif., for qualifying matches Tuesday-Wednesday and main-draw matches Oct. 7-10. Tournament information can be found online here.
Aside from Hubbs, Haviland and Escobedo, the remainder of the team is in Notre Dame, Ind., for the Eck Tennis Classic hosted by Notre Dame. Check out the action here.
2010 RIVIERA/ITA WOMEN’S ALL-AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS
Hosted by the Riviera Tennis Club
Pacific Palisades, Calif.
Oct. 7-10, 2010 (PQ Oct. 2-3 at UCLA, Qualifying Oct. 5-6 at Riviera)
In Doubles
Senior Cami Hubbs and junior Kelsey Haviland team up to compete in qualifying doubles at the tournament. The tandem finished with a 17-16 record last season while playing No. 1 doubles for the Buckeyes.
In Singles
Senior Paloma Escobedo, who was named Ohio State’s most valuable player a year ago, will compete in pre-qualifying singles, where she will meet Miami’s Gabriela Mejia in the first round.
Escobedo tallied 20 singles victories last season at the No. 2 spot. Escobedo downed Kelsey Garland of Texas Tech in the opening round of the 2009 All-American pre-qualifying singles before being bounced from the tournament by TCU’s Kayla Duncan.
Haviland joins Escobedo in pre-qualifying singles. The Dayton, Ohio, native, who finished last year with 23 wins, including a 7-3 Big Ten ledger and a five-match win streak to close out the season, will face 10th-seeded Connie Chieh-Yu Hsu of Penn in the opening round.
The draw for the pre-qualifying singles is 64 players, with the eight players that post three wins advancing to the qualifying draw. Out of the 64-player qualifying draw, players must win three matches to advance to the 32-player main draw.
Format
Best two-out-of-three sets in singles for all draws. Doubles consist of one, eight-game set in all draws with the exception of the main draw semifinals and final, which will be best two-out-of-three sets
Eck Tennis Classic
Hosted by the University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Ind.
Oct. 1-3, 2010
In Doubles
The Eck Tennis Classic is split into three flights: Blue, Gold and Green. In the Blue doubles flight, Kara Cecil and Fidan Manashirova face the duo of Sara Lazarevic and Monica Pezzotti from Kansas.
Noelle Malley and Gabby Steele will take on Chelsea Gankler and Claire McNulty of Dayton in Gold doubles while Kelsey Becker and Tiffany Dittmer line up across the court from Kelly O’Connell and Sarah Van Wallengham of Dayton in Green doubles.
In Singles
Three Buckeyes will compete in the Blue singles flight, including Manashirova, Cecil and Steele. Manashirova will face Tulsa’s Jo-Anne Karaitiana in the opening round. Steele and Cecil will take on Loni Dickerhoff of Dayton and Notre Dame’s Kristin Rafael, respectively.
Malley faces Kansas’ Dylan Windom in the Gold singles bracket. Dittmer will join her, competing against Notre Dame’s Jennifer Kellner.
Becker is the lone Buckeye in the Green flight. She will meet O’Connell in the opening round.
A Look at the 2010-11 Buckeyes
Paloma Escobedo, now in her senior season, reprised her role in the No. 2 singles position a year ago, earning a 17-9 record while teaming with former Buckeye Christina Keesey at No. 2 doubles, going 20-11 overall and 8-2 in conference matches. Her efforts throughout the season earned her MVP honors.
Classmate Cami Hubbs entered the singles lineup late in the spring, earning a 7-4 dual-match record and a 2-2 mark in Big Ten singles play. The Omaha, Neb., native teamed with Kelsey Haviland to form the Buckeyes’ top doubles tandem and earn 17 doubles victories on the year. The duo reached the doubles quarterfinals at the ITA Midwest Regional on the way to a team-leading 5-2 doubles record through the fall.
Junior Kelsey Haviland shared the team lead for dual-match singles victories (19) with Kirsten Flower and Gabby Steele last season. She finished with 23 singles wins while playing predominately at the No. 3 spot. Along with Steele, Haviland led the team with a 7-3 Big Ten ledger.
Gabby Steele led the team with 25 singles victories and 23 doubles victories a season ago, teaming with classmate Fidan Manashirova to tally 19 doubles wins. The Cincinnati, Ohio, native finished second among all Big Ten freshmen in singles and doubles dual-match wins, behind only Mimi Nguyen of Michigan. Her 25 singles victories tied Kristy Dascoli (1998-01) for fifth on OSU’s freshman singles win list. Steele’s 23 doubles wins were good for sixth on OSU’s freshman doubles win list.
Fidan Manashirova, after beginning her collegiate career with seven-consecutive victories, finished with 19 singles wins, including a team-best 7-1 record in the fall. Her 22 doubles victories tied former Buckeye Amy Marzluff (1988) for seventh on the Ohio State freshman doubles wins list.
Sophomore Kara Cecil earned four singles wins and three doubles victories in limited action. She posted a flawless record in the spring, with a 3-0 singles and 2-0 doubles ledger.
Freshman Noelle Malley, hailing from Kansas City, Mo., was a five-star recruit ranked No. 70 in the 2010 recruiting class by tennisrecruiting.net and No. 2 in the state of Missouri. In 2009, she reached the quarterfinals of the USTA National Open Girls 18’s in doubles in Cincinnati and was a part of the winning duo in the USTA Missouri Valley Super Girls 18’s doubles.
Tiffany Dittmer posted three-consecutive first place finishes in the Hamburg Girls Championships and a third place finish in 2008 in the Hamburg Women’s Championships. The Hamburg, Germany, native was a member of eight Hamburg Girl’s championship squads and was ranked No. 45 in Germany for girls under 18, as well as No. 3 in Hamburg.
Kelsey Becker, a three-star recruit according to tennisrecruiting.net, nabbed a spot on the first team All-Sierra Foothill League squad along with league MVP accolades last year. The Granite Bay, Calif., native and first-year Buckeye is a two-time Northern California Girl’s 18’s team champion and helped her team win the prestigious Gar Glenney Cup in 2008.
Up Next
The Buckeyes return to action Oct. 21-26 at the ITA Midwest Regional in Ann Arbor, Mich.
