Women's Tennis Set for USTA/ITA National Intercollegiate Championships
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 | Women's Tennis
The University of Florida's Lauren Embree (Marco Island, Fla.) and Joanna Mather (Duluth, Ga.) will compete in the singles and doubles draws at the USTA/ITA National Intercollegiate Championships held Nov. 3-6 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y.
In the 32-player women's singles draw, Embree will play Michigan's Emina Bektas in the first round at 5 p.m., while Mather drew Tulsa's Sam Vickers to begin the tournament in a match slated to start at 5:30 p.m.
The doubles field features 20 teams, with the Gator tandem of Embree and Mather receiving one of the 12 first-round byes and playing on Thursday at 11 a.m. the winner of the match between Tennessee's Natalie Pluskota and Kata Szekely versus Wyoming's Veronica Popovici and Simona Synkova.
Embree and Mather won the Riviera/ITA All-American Championships consolation doubles draw last month and earned an automatic berth into the USTA/ITA National Intercollegiate Championships. Both received at-large selections into the singles portion of the event.
Real-time coverage will be rampant beginning with the first matches Thursday at 9 a.m. In addition, the USTA is hosting a Cover it Live chat for the duration of the event.
As the only tournament on the ITA calendar to showcase elite players from every level of college tennis, the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships serves as the culmination of the fall season. Hosted by Columbia University, this prestigious event features is considered the second leg of the collegiate grand slam.
Gaining automatic entry into the tournament are champions from the USTA/ITA Division I Regional Championships held across the country in October, winners of the USTA/ITA National Small College Super Bowl, and the consolation champions, doubles finalists and singles quarterfinalists from the ITA Men's and Riviera/ITA Women's All-American Championships.
UF's Allie Will (Boca Raton, Fla.), ranked second in the country, earned an automatic berth into the singles and doubles field, but declined both to participate in another event.
Helpful Websites for Following the Event:
· ITA Tournament Website (includes updated draws)
