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Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Regional Finals, Changes in Selection Assure New Faces at USTA/ITA Indoor Intercollegiate Championships

Below are the results of the 12 men's and 12 women's regional finals (with the exception of the men's Northwest, which had a rainout on Monday and is not yet finished). In addition to the prestige of winning a regional title those champions also receive entry into next month's USTA/ITA Indoor Intercollegiate Championships in New York. 

There have been changes to the selection criteria this year however, with the at-large entries no longer needing only a quarterfinal appearance at the regional, which was the stipulation for the men prior to this year. Now, at-large players must have reached the final of a regional, but only six at large spots remain, meaning six of the regional finalists will not get in.  According to this document, the selections will be based on fall results/performance and ITA National preseason ranking. The 32 men's entries are determined this way:

8 ITA All-American quarterfinalists*
1 ITA All-American Consolation winner (Jonas Lutjen, Ole Miss)
12 Regional champions
1 USTA/ITA Small College champion (Adrien Berkowicz, Tyler Community College)
1 Host Site (Columbia) wild card
2 ITA wild cards
1 USTA wild card
6 At-large

*Emilio Gomez USC; Alex Domijan UVA; Raymond Sarmiento USC; KU Singh UGA; Japie DeKlerk Tulsa; Mac Styslinger UVA, Matija Pecotic Princeton; Peter Kobelt Ohio State

As it turns out, two of the All-American quarterfinalists, Pecotic and Kobelt, played in and won their regionals, so that will increase the at-large entries from 6 to 8.

Several high profile players, including preseason No. 1 Henrique Cunha of Duke, did not qualify and will need to rely on a wild card to receive entry. Other No. 1 regional seeds who did not make the finals include Michigan's Evan King, Washington's Kyle McMorrow, Pepperdine's Finn Tearney, Florida's Bob van Overbeek, Oklahoma's Costin Paval, Baylor's Mate Zsiga and Kentucky's Anthony Rossi. In fact, so far, the only player who was in the 2011 men's field who has earned entry into this year's tournament is USC's Sarmiento.

The women's selection criteria is different.

4 Riviera/ITA All-American semifinalists*
1 Riviera/ITA All-American consolation winner (Mary Anne Macfarlane, Alabama)
12 Regional champions
1 USTA/ITA Small College champion (Barbora Krtickov, Armstrong Atlantic)
1 Host site wild card (Columbia)
2 USTA wild cards
1 ITA wild card
10 At-large: 6 of the 12 Regional champion runners-up
                  4 at-large selections based on fall results

* Lauren Embree Florida, Julia Elbaba Virginia, Danielle Lao USC, Zoe Scandalis USC

For the women, there were no regional winners who had already qualified, so those numbers will not change. The complete selection details for women is also available at the same link.

As you can see from the list below, many more top-seeded women reached the regional finals, with only five who did not: Nicole Gibbs (injury withdrawal) of Stanford, Emina Bektas of Michigan, Joelle Kissell of North Carolina State, Lucia Batta of UNLV and Nicole Bartnik of Columbia.

Regional final results:

Men:
Northwest: Ben McLachlan(2) Cal d. John Lamble(3) Santa Clara 6-2, 6-1
Southwest: Marcos Giron(5) UCLA d. Dennis Mkrtchian(11) UCLA 6-2, 6-2
Mountain: Enej Bonin(1) Denver d. Samir Iftikhar(9) New Mexico 6-0, 6-3
Texas: Daniel Whitehead(3) Texas d. Julian Lenz(14) Baylor 6-4, 6-4
Central: Guillermo Alcorta(2) Oklahoma d. Leandro Toledo(4) Minnesota 6-4, 6-1
Midwest: Peter Kobelt(2) Ohio St. d. Vlad Stefan(16) Michigan 6-3, 4-6, 6-1
Northeast: Matija Pecotic(1) Princeton d. Winston Lin(2) Columbia 6-2, 4-6, 6-1
Ohio Valley: Ryan Lipman(12) Vanderbilt d. Mikelis Libietis(2) Tennessee 6-3, 6-4
Atlantic: Harrison Richmond(7) Virginia d. Jarmere Jenkins(1) Virginia 6-4, 7-5
Carolinas: Esben Hess-Olesen(9) North Carolina d. Cameron Silverman(u) Elon 6-2, 7-5
Southern: Nik Scholtz(1) Ole Miss d. Romain Bogaerts(u) Mississippi St. 7-5, 6-4
Southeast: Florent Diep(6) Florida d. Victor Valente(u) Georgia State 6-0, 6-3

WOMEN:
Northwest: Krista Hardebeck(5) Stanford d. Anett Schutting(4) Cal 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(4)
Southwest: Robin Anderson(1) UCLA d. Sabrina Santamaria(2) USC 6-2, 6-4
Mountain: Aleksandra Josifoska(2) UNLV d. Sarah Pham(3) Utah 6-3, 6-4
Texas: Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar(1) Texas A&M d. Ema Burgic(7) Baylor 6-2, 0-6, 6-3
Central: Petra Niedermayerova(1) Kansas St. d. Samantha Vickers(2) Tulsa 6-1, 7-5
Midwest: Kate Turvy(2) Northwestern d. Britney Sanders(7) Notre Dame 6-4, 0-6, 6-4
Northeast: Amanda Muliwan(11) Princeton d. Kanika Vaidya(6) Columbia 6-4, 6-4
Ohio Valley: Kata Szekely(2) Tennessee d. Brynn Boren(1) Tennessee 6-4, 6-2
Atlantic: Petra Januskova(1) Penn State d. Li Xi(2) Virginia 6-2, 6-2
Carolinas: Hanna Mar(3) Duke d. Zoe De Bruycker(4) North Carolina 6-1, 6-3
Southern: Alexa Guarachi(1) Alabama d. Caroline Rohde-Moe(2) Ole Miss 6-1, 5-7, 7-5
Southeast: Lauren Herring(7) Georgia d. Sofie Oyen(5) Florida 7-6(3), 7-6(1)

For the doubles qualifiers, and links to the complete draws of all the regionals, see the ITA tournament page. By clicking on the name of the winners, you can read more about their regional final wins at their school's website.

1 comments:

college tennis said...

It seems like 8 of 11 regional finalists will get an at large berth. 8 for the reason you mentioned in the article and 11 since I'm thinking Columbia's Lin, who was a regional finalist, will likely get the Host WC.

Also, you have to believe Cunha will get an ITA WC & King will get a WC. If King also gets an ITA WC, it seems like the USTA WC should go to McMorrow. I think he would be the next highest ranked American not already in the field. Unless somehow Novikov is healthy enough to play.

Regardless, several quality players will be sitting at home.

Also, Richmond over Jenkins (who qualified by reaching the finals) may be the least surprising "upset" of the year. Usually, a teammate will pull out in that situation.