The University of Akron Athletics
Tennis Debuts Season at Spartan Invitational
September 23 | Women's Tennis
AKRON, Ohio - The University of Akron tennis team begins the fall component of its schedule this weekend by competing in the 21st-annual Spartan Invitational at Michigan State. The 13-team event will be held Friday-Sunday in East Lansing, Mich. On Friday and Sunday, teams will compete at the MSU Outdoor Tennis Courts and Fee Tennis Courts located on the east side of campus. Competition on Saturday will take place at Fee Tennis Courts and Okemos High School (due to MSU's home football game). Play is scheduled to begin each day at 9 a.m. ET. The invite will be contested in a compass draw, non-elimination format.
Joining Akron and Michigan State in the field, are Ball State, Bowling Green, California University of Pennsylvania, Chicago State, Cleveland State, Detroit, Eastern Michigan, IPFW, Louisville, Marquette and Toledo. At last season's Spartan Invitational, UA claimed two singles flights and the only doubles bracket.
Akron comes off what was arguably the
most successful season in program history in 2009-10, in
which it posted a program single-season record for league wins
(7-1) and tallied the most overall victories (19-3) since the
1990-91 squad went 26-6. Additionally, the Zips opened the
dual-match portion of their season with a 15-match win streak and
were the nation's last undefeated Division I squad. UA's impressive
start earned it a season-high and program-best national ranking of
63rd by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association during the first
week of April. The Zips clinched a bye out of the Mid-American
Conference championship's first-round for the second-consecutive
year, after achieving their highest-ever finish in the conference
standings. Second-seeded Akron was edged 4-3 by third-seeded
Western Michigan in the semifinal round of the league championship
- advancing farther into the tournament than any other squad in
program history.
Akron returns its entire roster from last season and welcomes in
freshman Natalia
Kuvakina, from St. Petersburg, Russia. Included in the Zips'
list of returning student-athletes is junior Zara
Harutyunyan, the two-time Mid-American Conference Player of the
Year who is listed 73rd in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's
preseason singles rankings. She closed out last season ranked ninth
in the Midwest region and 111th nationally - the first-ever Zip to
earn a spot in the ITA's final national rankings.
Harutyunyan, also a member of the All-MAC First Team each of the last two years, was one of 19 automatic qualifiers selected to participate in the NCAA Championships singles competition in May. She was the first-ever Akron player chosen to the 64-person field and is one of just four MAC student-athletes to ever qualify, and the first since 2007 (in nearly 30 years of MAC tennis). She lost in the opening round of the NCAA event to Southern California's Danielle Lao, who was then-ranked 37th nationally. At the time of the competition, Harutyunyan was listed 98th in the country.
Also returning is sophomore Angelina Jogasuria, who finished her rookie season ranked 19th in the Midwest region after being selected as the league's freshman of the year and also earning a spot on the All-MAC First Team.
Next weekend, Akron will be in South Bend, Ind., to participate in the Notre Dame Invitational.
