Ohio State Ready for ITA/USTA Midwest Regional – Ohio State Buckeyes
10/21/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State women’s tennis team is set to take the court Thursday for the kick-off of the ITA/USTA Midwest Regional Championships hosted by the University of Michigan. Play begins at 9 a.m. Thursday at the Varsity Tennis Center in Ann Arbor, Mich., 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 Michigan’s athletics website, www.mgoblue.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 Nov. 4-7 in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. The singles finalists and doubles champions from regionals across the country earn automatic bids into the tournament.
OSU has four players in the singles qualifying bracket. Sophomore Kara Cecil is the No. 4 seed in the draw and will face the winner of JoHanna Manningham of Notre Dame and Alex Power of Cleveland State in the second round after earning a first-round bye. Classmate Fidan Manashirova also earned a first-round bye. Freshman Tiffany Dittmer will open against Amanda Moccia of Western Michigan, while classmate Noelle Malley will face Youngstown State’s Carolyn Jesko.
Gabby Steele, Cami Hubbs, Paloma Escobedo and Kelsey Haviland will begin competition in main draw singles. The tandems of Escobedo and Hubbs, Malley and Cecil, Dittmer and Manashirova and Steele and Haviland all earned spots in the main draw doubles, which will begin with the first two rounds Friday.
Host school Michigan will be familiar competition for the Buckeyes. Six Big Ten schools will be sending players to the tournament. The complete list of participating schools includes: Akron, Cleveland State, DePaul, Detroit-Mercy, Eastern Illinois, Eastern Michigan, Illinois, Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne, Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Toledo, Wisconsin and Youngstown State.
A Look Back
At the regionals last season in Evanston, Ill., former Buckeye Kirsten Flower advanced to the quarterfinals of the main draw singles before falling to finalist Kristy Frilling of Notre Dame.
Seven Buckeyes competed in main draw singles after Kelsey Haviland, Fidan Manashirova and Gabby Steele advanced through singles qualifying. Steele and Paloma Escobedo both posted first-round wins while Christina Keesey fell in the third round of main draw singles.
The duo of Kelsey Haviland and Cami Hubbs earned three wins in main draw doubles before being bounced from the tournament by Notre Dame’s Frilling and Kali Krisik in the quarterfinals.
