July 23, 2009
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Many of the top collegiate men and women tennis players in the region converge at Texas A&M's George P. Mitchell Tennis Center this weekend to compete in the ITA Summer Circuit.
Action gets underway Friday at 2 p.m. and runs through Monday.
The last match on Friday is slated for 7 p.m. Matches on Saturday and Sunday are schedule from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., including doubles play, which is expected to begin at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Championship matches are currently slated to be contested Monday morning.
Admission to the four-day tournament is free.
Several Aggies will be competing in the four-day event. Aggie sophomore-to-be Colin Hoover (Victoria, Texas) is the No. 1 singles seed on the men's side. Kayvon Karimi (Dallas, Texas), who will be a junior in the upcoming season, is the No. 5 seed.
Hoover received a first-round bye and will open against Kevin Wright of the University of Texas-Tyler at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. Karimi also received an opening bye and will play his first match Friday at 6 p.m.
On the women's side, freshman Nazari Urbina (Tijuana, Mexico) makes her Aggie debut as the No. 3 seed. Others representing A&M in the women's competition are No. 5 seeds Christi Liles (Largo, Fla.), Sheri Olivier (Topeka, Kan.) and Lauren Santacroce (Spring, Texas). Seeded players 1-5 received a first-round bye and second-round times are to be announced.
In Friday's first-round action, A&M's Ashley Turpin (New Braunfels, Texas) opens against Brittany Tobin of Collin County Junior College at 4 p.m.
Doubles draws will be announced on Friday.
The top participants move on to compete in the ITA/USTA National Tournament to be held August 8-12 in Bloomington, Ind.