The University of Akron Athletics
Harutyunyan Earns NCAA Singles Championship Bid
May 06 | Women's Tennis
AKRON, Ohio - University of Akron sophomore tennis player Zara Harutyunyan (Yerevan, Armenia/Yerevan Secondary School No. 134) was one of 19 automatic qualifiers selected to participate in the NCAA Championships singles competition, the Division I Tennis Subcommittee announced on Wednesday night. Harutyunyan is the first-ever Zip chosen to the 64-person field and is one of just four Mid-American Conference players to ever qualify, and the first since 2007.
The singles competition will be conducted May 26-31 at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga., with the University of Georgia playing host. Automatic qualification into the singles championship is awarded to any conference with one or more eligible singles players ranked in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's top 125. The draw for the first round will be announced one day prior to the event.
Harutyunyan, who last week was named MAC Player of the Year and to the all-league first team, is ranked 98th nationally in singles by the ITA. She was also chosen as the conference's player of the year and as a first team honoree in 2009. Harutyunyan enters the NCAA Championships with a 36-5 overall singles record this season, including a 21-1 dual mark and an 8-0 tally against MAC opponents. She went 2-0 on the singles court in last weekend's conference tournament, in which second-seeded Akron (19-3, 7-1 MAC) advanced to the semifinal round for the first time in program history.
Harutyunyan joins Eastern Michigan's Vanessa Frankowski (2007) and Western Michigan's Amy Yeast (1985) and Sue Weigand (1983) as the only MAC players to have competed in the NCAA Championships singles field.
In October 2009, Harutyunyan represented UA in the Riviera/ITA All-American Championship in Los Angeles, where she 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. Also in October, she was one of three Zips to qualify for the singles main draw of the Wilson/ITA Midwest Regional in Evanston, Ill. (joining freshman identical twins Angelina Jogasuria and Angelika Jogasuria).
Players Mentioned
