FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas women’s tennis team continues its fall schedule this week as it travels to Stillwater, Okla., to compete in the ITA Central Regional Championship. The tournament runs Oct. 16-20 with play being held from the Greenwood Tennis Center on the campus of Oklahoma State.
The ITA Regional Championships, held across 12 nationwide regions, serve as a qualifier for the ITA National Indoor Championships which will be held Nov. 6-9 in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. Each region’s singles and doubles champion will advance to the National Indoors.
“The ITA Regionals are a great opportunity to test ourselves against our regional rivals,” head coach Michael Hegarty said. “These results will provide us with great data to help us prepare for these teams, many of which we will face in the spring.”
Among the teams in the Central region include Arkansas State, Creighton, Drake, Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Minnesota, Missouri, Missouri State, Nebraska, Nebraska-Omaha, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Oral Roberts, Saint Louis, South Dakota State, Southern Illinois, SIU-Edwardsville, Tulsa, UMKC and Wichita State.
Arkansas is scheduled to have nine players compete. Six players will compete in the singles qualifying draw and three will be in the singles main draw.
Juniors Flavia Araujo and Nicole Breaux, sophomores Oleksandra Shkorupeieva and Nastassia Rubel, and freshmen Peyton Jennings and Mia Jurasic will all be playing in the singles qualifying draw which begins on Thursday. Thursday’s qualifying is 96 players, meaning players will need to win two matches to be one of the 24 who will advance to Friday’s main draw of 64 players.
Juniors Makenzie Craft and Yang Pang and sophomore Shannon Hudson were selected for the singles main draw which will start on Friday. Hudson is the No. 4 overall seed in singles and owns a 6-4 record this fall. She is also ranked No. 121 in the preseason ITA poll and previously competed in the singles qualifying draw at the Riviera/ITA Women’s All-American Championships in Pacific Palisades, Calif., on Sept. 30.
One doubles main draw will be played starting on Friday. The tandem of Pang and Shkorupeieva are the No. 2 seeded team overall.
The ITA Central Regional will serve as the team’s fifth of six scheduled events for the fall. The Razorbacks have had individual successes at each of the four prior tournaments this fall. Here are the highlights from those tournaments:
Country Club of Little Rock Invitational (Sept. 12-14):
- Shkorupeieva claimed runner-up honors in her singles flight
- Pang won the consolation championship of her singles flight
- Pang/Shkorupeieva finished runner-up in their doubles flight
Oklahoma Sooner Invitational (Sept. 19-21):
- Shkorupeieva and Araujo both claimed the championship of their respective singles flights
- Hudson and Craft both finished runner-up in each of their singles flights
Colorado Invitational (Sept. 25-28):
- Jennings finished runner-up in her singles flight
Virginia Fall Invitational (Oct. 10-12):
- Hudson tallied a 3-1 record during the highly competitive tournament
For results from each day’s action, check ArkansasRazorbacks.com and follow @RazorbackWTEN on Twitter.