College Tennis News - William and Mary Tennis Set for ITA Atlantic Region Championships

BLACKSBURG, Va. - The William and Mary women's tennis team travels to take part in the ITA Atlantic Region Championships at the Burrows-Burelson Tennis Center on the campus of Virginia Tech. The Green and Gold will have three doubles team in the main draw to go along with three singles players in the main draw and two in the qualifying singles flight. The event gets underway at 8 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 19 and runs through the regional championship matches on Tuesday, Oct. 23.

The Green and Gold will have a pair of seeded teams in the 48-team doubles draw as the junior tandem of Maria Belaya and Jeltje Loomans, which is ranked No. 12 nationally, and the Tribe duo of senior Anik Cepeda and freshman Leeza Nemchinov are among the top 16 seeds at the event. As seeded doubles teams, both Tribe pairs earn a first-round bye and will not begin competition until Saturday.

Cepeda and Nemchinov are a No. 9-16 seed and will face the winner of Richmond's Melissa Kandinata and Katya Salas against the Navy duo of Emani Decquir and Stefanie Ton at 8 a.m. on Saturday. Belaya and Loomans are seeded No. 3 in the regional event and will open play in the second round at 9 a.m. on Saturday against either Virginia Tech's Frances Peyton and Mashal Tamory or Morgan State's Arina Alilueva and Margarita Belyakova.

Senior Nina Vulovich and junior Sydney Smith will take part in the opening round of the main doubles draw, facing the West Virginia team of Irinka Toiaze and Vivian Tsui at 3:30 p.m. on Friday. The victor advances to meet No. 9-16 seed Kara Kurcin and Ellie Ball of Marshall at 10 a.m. on Saturday.

The regional event kicks off with the qualifying singles draw at 8 a.m. on Friday. Both Vulovich and Smith are seeded in the qualifying flight and will have the opportunity to advance to the main draw with a pair of victories on Friday. Vulovich is the top seed in the qualifying flight and will face Morgan State's Arina Alilueva in the first round at 8 a.m. The winner advances to a 10:30 a.m. match with a spot in the main singles draw up for grabs.

Smith, who is the qualifying flight's No. 5 seed, will face West Virginia's Irinka Toidze at 9 a.m. on Friday. The winner will play for a spot in the main singles draw at 11:30 a.m. as well. The main singles draw starts on Saturday and will include at least three Tribe players in Cepeda, Belaya and Nemchinov.

The singles and doubles winners of the ITA Atlantic Regional will earn a spot in the exclusion USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y., Nov. 8-11. The National Indoor Intercollegiate Championship is the second fall national championship event in college tennis and includes a 32-player singles draw and 20-team doubles bracket for both men and women.