The University of Akron Athletics
Five UA Tennis Players Accepted to ITA Midwest Regional
October 21 | Women's Tennis
- The University of Akron tennis team will send a program-best
five players to this week's Wilson/ITA Midwest Regional, to be held
Thursday through Tuesday (Oct. 22-27) in Evanston, Ill., at
Northwestern's Combe Indoor Tennis Center.
Three Zips, sophomore Zara Harutyunyan and freshmen twin sisters Angelika and Angelina Jogasuria, will lineup in the singles main draw. Harutyunyan, who earlier this month became the first UA player to advance herself into the singles qualifier of the Riviera/ITA All-American Championship, is seeded in the 5-8 grouping. At the ITA All-American event (features the top-144 players in the nation), Harutyuntan won three matches in two days to advance herself out of the 64-player pre-qualifying singles draw and into the 64-person qualifying component of the competition.
Representing the Zips in the singles qualifier at the Regional will be junior Anya Baronayte and freshman Prang Pantusart. Pantusart is seeded 5-8, while Baronayte is seeded 9-16. In the doubles main draw, Harutyunyan and Angelina will team up as will Angelika and Pantusart. Both pairs are seeded 9-16.
"Having five players and two doubles teams accepted to the Regional is unbelievable recognition for our program," Akron head coach Jeffrey Wyshner said. "Last year, we were thrilled to have one player directly accepted into the main draw and one in the qualifying. Now to have three in the main draw, two more seeded in the qualifier and to have two doubles teams seeded as well, it really shows how well we've competed in our tournaments this fall."
Coupled with Harutyunyan's run at the ITA All-American event, Akron has enjoyed a highly-successful fall season as the Zips won five of nine singles flights and three of four doubles draws at the Bowling Green Invitational on Sept. 19-20, and then claimed two singles flights and the only doubles bracket at the Spartan Invitational at Michigan State on Sept. 25-27. The success continued when earlier this week the program learned that five of its players had been accepted to compete in the Regional.
"Even though it is nice to know that our program is getting this level of respect, it is still up to the players to go out and play well in one of the most important events of the year," Wyshner said. "For any players hoping to make the NCAAs in singles or doubles or working to get a national or regional individual ranking, success at this tournament is critical. It will be a very challenging event because we have one of the absolute toughest regions in the country based on team rankings."
The Regional will feature players from Northwestern, Notre Dame, Illinois, Michigan, Depaul and Ohio State, all of which are ranked in the top 50, and Northwestern and Notre Dame are perennially top-10 programs. In the top 16 seeds in singles and doubles, there are six players from Northwestern, six from Illinois, five from Notre Dame, four from Michigan, three from Ohio State, three from Akron, two from Depaul, two from Iowa and one from Marquette.
"That is some pretty elite company for us to be in," Wyshner said.
Competition gets underway on Thursday with two rounds of qualifying singles play. On Friday, the final round of the singles qualifier will be played, along with two rounds of main draw doubles.
Joining Akron in the Regional field will be 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.
Players Mentioned
