Regionals (Nearly) Complete; ITA Indoor Fields Begin to Take Shape

With the exception the men's Texas regional, the completion of which has been delayed by rain in College Station, the regional men's and women's winners have been crowned. The 12 regional champions receive direct entry into the upcoming ITA Indoor, which begins a week from Thursday at Yale.

There were plenty of surprises especially in the men's results, where only two No. 1 seeds lived up to their preseason ranking: Clay Donato of North Carolina and Oleksandr Nedovyesov of Oklahoma State. (Sanam Singh of Virginia still has a chance to make that three, but he will get an at-large bid regardless of the outcome, so teammate Jarmere Jenkins is the likely winner of that match). A majority of the top seeds did not reach the regional quarterfinals, and according to the ITA selection rules, are ineligible for at-large bids. These players are Alex Clayton (Stanford), Justin Kronauge (Ohio State), Nate Schnugg (Georgia)(who suffered a knee injury in the regionals, had surgery, and is expected back for the dual season), Austen Childs (Louisville), David Simson (Denver), Jonathan Wong (Columbia), Saketh Myneni (Alabama) and Dean Jackson (San Diego).

Here is the complete list of regional winners with their regional seedings in parentheses:

Northwest: Bradley Klahn (2) Stanford
Southwest: Amit Inbar (9) UCLA)
Mountain: Vincente Joli (12) Boise St.
Texas: Raony Carvalho (3) Texas Tech or Ed Corrie (5) Texas (TBD Wednesday)
Central: Oleksandr Nedovyesov (1) Oklahoma St.
Midwest: Moritz Baumann (2) Wisconsin
Northeast: Sven Vloedgraven (4) Binghampton
Ohio Valley: Eric Quigley (7) Kentucky
Atlantic: Sanam Singh (1) or Jarmere Jenkins (16) Virginia
Carolina: Clay Donato (1) North Carolina
Southern: Tim Puetz (2) Auburn
Southeast: Clint Bowles (5) Florida State

The players who have already earned spots are:
JP Smith Tennessee (All-American)
Andrei Daescu Oklahoma (All-American)
Steve Johnson Southern Cal (All-American)
Robert Farah Southern Cal (All-American)
Damian Hume Collin County Community College (small college super bowl winner)

There are two host wild cards, from Yale; an ITA wild card and 12 at-large selections, which will be taken from the preseason rankings, provided the ranked player reached the regional quarterfinals.

On the women's side of things, results were more consistent with the preseason rankings. Four top seeds won their regions, and only Denise Dy of Washington, a nine seed from the Northwest region, and freshman Allie Will of Florida, the sixth seed from Florida, were winners not seeded 1, 2, or 3. The women's No. 1 regional seeds not eligible for at-large bids are Lauren Embree of Florida, Michaela Kissell of Marshall and Molly Scott of Dartmouth.

Here is the complete list of the women's winners with their regional seedings in parentheses:

Northwest: Denise Dy (9) Washington
Southwest: Maria Sanchez (3) Southern Cal
Mountain: Pichittra Thongdach (1) Boise St.
Texas: Aeriel Ellis (3) Texas
Central: Ana-Maria Constantinescu (3) Oklahoma
Midwest: Maria Mosolova (1) Northwestern
Northeast: Holly Cao (2) Harvard
Ohio Valley: Caitlyn Whoriskey (1) Tennessee
Atlantic: Nadine Fahoum (3) Old Dominion
Carolina: Josipa Bek (2) Clemson
Southern: Fani Chifchieva (1) Auburn
Southeast: Allie Will (6) Florida

Again there are two host wild cards from Yale, an ITA wild card and 12 at-large selections yet to be decided. The five women already with places in the draw prior to the regionals are:

Irina Falconi Georgia Tech (All-American)
Chelsey Gullickson Georgia (All-American)
Venise Chan Washington (All-American)
Jana Juricova Cal (All-American)
Sona Novakova Armstrong Atlantic (small college super bowl winner)

For links to the regional draws, see the ITA regional home page.

Tags: college tennis, ITA Regional Championships, ITA National Indoor, Colette Lewis