University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers to Host Region Championships at Baseline
10/12/2016 12:00:00 AM | Tennis
Tournament Draw
For the first time in 12 years, the University of Minnesota will be hosting the USTA/ITA Central Region Championships at Baseline Tennis Center Oct. 13 - Oct. 17.
After the ITA restructured the tournament regions, Minnesota was moved to the Central Regional from the Midwest Region. The Central Region contains all division one teams from Minnesota to Arkansas. Traditionally the tournament has been held in the southern part of the region.
"We are very excited to host the ITA Central Region Tournament this week," head coach Chuck Merzbacher said. "In addition to the scope of the tournament, the competition is as strong as any region in the nation. Oklahoma State is the defending national runner-ups, and strong teams with NCAA experience will be here as well. Any win in this tournament is a great win. I am excited for our team to play this event at home. We have two tournaments under our belt and we feel up for this tourney."
Tournament Format
Singles match scoring will be best-out-of three, no-ad scoring with a match tiebreaker if the sets are split. The doubles format will be an eight game pro-set with tiebreak at seven all until the semifinal. Semifinals and finals will be two sets with a match tiebreak.
Thursday's action will start off at 8 a.m. with 32 doubles matches followed by the first round of singles beginning approximately at 11 a.m.
Friday will be another 8 a.m. start with 16 doubles matches then the second round of singles matches starting approximately at 10 a.m. The third round of doubles will begin around 3 p.m. to finish off the day.
The doubles round of 16 followed by the doubles quarterfinals and the singles round of 16 will be played on Saturday.
Sunday will feature the doubles semifinal, singles quarterfinal and semifinal. Monday will be the final day of the tournament when both the doubles and singles finals will be played.
2015 Region Championships
Last year the Gophers traveled to Stillwater, Okla. for the region championships. Current junior Caroline Ryba advanced to the singles quarterfinals while Mehvish Sadar and Camila Vargas Gomez where still competing in the singles main draw on the final day.
Caitlyn Merzbacher teamed up with Jessika Mozia in doubles where they played their way into the main draw round of 16.
Singles Participants
Baseline will be playing host to 26 schools this weekend. The Gophers will be having all 11 players participating.
Caitlyn Merzbacher will make her fall debut when she takes on Jieke Stroobant of Northern Iowa at 8 a.m.
Freshman Kalyssa Hall will start Thursday morning at 9 a.m. She will be competing against Ann Selim of Oklahoma.
Fellow freshman Tina Kreinis and Karyna Bihel will both start at 9:30 a.m. Kreinis takes on Katie Fries of Missouri-Kansas City while Bihel plays Mariluz Rojo of St. Louis.
Sophomore transfer Barbara Mancera will be making her Gopher debut at 11 a.m. versus Lisa Andersson of Nebraska. Mancera is returning from a foot injury that kept her out the beginning of the fall season.
Cammy Frei will start the tournament with a match against the No. 17 seeded Samantha Budai of Iowa State. Frei is 5-2 in singles matches this fall.
Captain Maja Vujic begins her tournament play at 3 p.m. as she takes on Nebraska-Omaha's Kenzie Hill.
Coming into the weekend Camila Vargas Gomez is 6-1 in singles matches and plays the No. 4 seed Ana Oparenovic of Arkansas. The match is scheduled to begin at 12:30 p.m.
Caroline Ryba will be the No. 9 seed in the tournament and will play Missouri's Claire Sullivan at 5 p.m.
Rounding out the singles matches for the Gophers on day one will be Mehvish Safdar and Annemarie Emme at 6:30 p.m. Safdar will play Arkansas State's Shannon O'Brien while Emme plays No. 17 seed Tanaporn Thongsing of Wichita State.
Doubles Participants
On Friday, Merzbacher and Safdar will start doubles play at 8 a.m. versus the No. 9 seeded duo from Tulsa. Last season the pair from Minnesota had 12-9 record.
Bihel and Vujic will begin the day at 9 a.m. against a pair from Kansas State. The two have split two matches this fall with each other.
Emme and Kreinis will team up together to take on a pair from Nebraska-Omaha at 9 a.m. while Frei and Ryba will begin at noon versus Iowa. Frei and Ryba are 4-1 in doubles play this fall and are currently on a three-match winning streak.
Mancera and Vargas Gomez will take on a pair from Oklahoma at noon. This is will be the first time the two will play together.
How to Follow
You can follow the Gophers as they compete on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. This year Baseline will feature online live streams of the indoor courts. Check out the links to each court below:
Court 1: http://z.umn.edu/wtc1
Court 2: http://z.umn.edu/wtc2
Court 3: http://z.umn.edu/wtc3
Court 4: http://z.umn.edu/wtc4
Court 5: http://z.umn.edu/wtc5
Court 6: http://z.umn.edu/wtc6
Players Mentioned
