Five Players Earn Regional Titles, Berths in USTA/ITA Indoor; Small College and Super Bowl Championships Complete; Capra Feature

Most of the ITA Regional Championships will begin this weekend, but five of them were held over the past five days. The winners receive a place in the 32-player field at the USTA/ITA Indoor Intercollegiate Championships next month at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York.

MEN:
Midwest Region at Ohio State:
Blaz Rola(1) of Ohio State def. Evan King(3) Michigan, 6-3, 6-4
Chase Buchanan/Peter Kobelt(2) of Ohio St. def. Blaz Rola/Connor Smith(1) of Ohio State 8-3

Carolinas Region at University of North Carolina:
Christopher Mengel(3) of Duke def. Henrique Cunha(1) of Duke 7-6(8), ret. inj.
Cunha/Mengel(1) of Duke def. Brennan Boyajian/Joey Burkhardt of North Carolina 9-8(6)

Northeast Region at Cornell University:
Vasko Mladenov(5) of St. John's def. Marc Powers(6) of Yale, 6-1, 4-6, 6-3
Matt Siow/Matt Spindler(9) of Princeton def. Alistair Felton/Casey MacMaster(3) of Harvard 8-5

WOMEN:
Mountain West Region at University of Nevada-Las Vegas:
Aleksandra Josifoska(3) of UNLV def. Lucia Batta(2) of UNLV 6-0, 0-6, 6-2
Veronica Popovici/Simona Synkova (3) of University of Wyoming def. Heather Davidson/Laurence Pelchat of University of Montana 8-2

Ohio Valley Region at University of Memphis:
Jackie Wu(5) of Vanderbilt def. Brynn Boren(2) of University of Tennessee 6-1, 6-1
Natalie Pluskota/Kata Szekely(6) of University of Tennessee def. Tiffany Welcher/Alyssa Hibberd of Memphis University 6-3, 6-2.

The National Small College Championships were held last weekend in Mobile, Alabama, and the small college Super Bowl singles winners, who earn a spot at the Indoor Championships, were Lucas Jovita of Division II Rollins College, who spent his first three years at Division I University of South Florida, and NAIA Auburn-Montgomery's Ana Veselinovic. The doubles titles went to Division II Valdosta State's Christian Hansen and Louis Loeffler on the men's side and Tyler Junior College's Kerrie Cartwright and Audrey Leitz on the women's. For more on the Super Bowl finals, see the ITA story. The complete list of Small College champions is below:

Division II Men
Lucas Jovita (Rollins) def. Daniele Piludu (Concordia) 6-0, 6-2

Division II Women
Annie Hwang (BYU-Hawaii) def. Barbora Kritckova (Armstrong Atlantic) 6-4, 6-0

Division III Men
Dillon Pottish (Emory) def. Adam Putterman (Wash. University in St. Louis) 6-0, 6-1

Division III Women
Lok Sze Leung (Middlebury) def. Gabrielle Clary (Emory) 6-3, 6-2

NAIA Men
Chris Freeman (Embry-Riddle) def. Bruno Tiberti (Oklahoma Christian) 6-4, 2-6, 6-4

NAIA Women
Ana Veselinovic (Auburn-Montgomery) def. Hermon Brhane (Oklahoma Christian) 5-7, 6-1, 6-3

JUCO Men
Jair Assuncao (Laredo) def. Kyle Rowe (Collin County) 6-1, 7-6 (3)

JUCO Women
Kerrie Cartwright (Tyler) def. Barbora Bozkova (Laredo) 6-1, 7-5

The Duke Chronicle recently ran a feature on Blue Devil freshman Trice Capra. I don't believe the reporter was all that familiar with tennis, and she certainly made a mistake when saying Capra, because she was an amateur, left $250,000 on the table for her performance at last year's US Open. That is probably overstated by a factor of five. It makes me wonder about her statement that Capra is "the highest ranked player ever to choose collegiate tennis over the professional circuit." I can't think of anyone lately who has been ranked higher than Capra when entering college, so it may be true, but I would be more comfortable with a source on that claim.

In Pro Circuit results today, Allie Kiick had a big win at the 25K in South Carolina, beating No. 3 seed and WTA No. 121 Jamie Hampton 6-4, 2-6, 6-3. Mitchell Krueger and Shane Vinsant were not successful in Mansfield, with Krueger failing to win a game against No. 4 seed Jesse Levine, and Vinsant falling to No. 8 seed Blake Strode. Complete results are at the usta.com Pro Circuit page.