Prequalifying Singles Draw | Prequalifying Doubles Draw
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Several members of the Texas A&M women's tennis team begin competition in the prequalifying rounds at the 2014 Riviera/ITA All-American Championships, Saturday in Los Angeles.
A&M junior Stefania Hristov (Iasi, Romania) is first to take to the court in singles as she faces Miho Kowase of Ohio State at 10:30 a.m. (CT) at the Sunset Rec Center. Anna Mamalat (Philadelphia, Pa.), a No. 9-16 seed in the 64-player singles draw, is slated to face Florida's Spencer Liang at 12 p.m. (CT) also at the Sunset Rec Center, and sophomore Rutuja Bhosale (Shrirampur, India) meets No. 7 seed Cindy Nguyen of Hawaii at 1:30 p.m. (CT) at Sycamore Courts.
Bhosale and Mamalat also will team together to compete in the 16-team prequalifying doubles draw. No. 39 in the ITA preseason doubles rankings, the Aggie duo opens play Saturday at 10:30 a.m. (CT) against Maci Epstein and Marie Faure of Virginia at Sycamore Courts.
Each player or doubles pair must win three rounds to advance to the qualifying draw, to be played Sept. 30-Oct. 1. A total of eight singles players and four doubles teams will advance from the prequalifying round to the qualifying round.
A&M's Saska Gavrilovska (Vrsac, Serbia) and sophomore Rachel Pierson (Princeton, N.J.), a transfer from the University of Virginia, were selected to play in the qualifying round in both singles and doubles.
The qualifying rounds also are comprised of a singles draw of 64 and a doubles draw of 32. Just as with prequalifying, a singles player or doubles tandem must win three consecutive matches to advance into the main draw. Eight spots in the main draw are reserved for singles qualifiers, while the doubles main draw imports four teams from the qualifying round.
Main draw competition will be played Oct. 2-5 at the Riviera Tennis Club in Pacific Palisades, California.
Main draw singles semifinalists, main draw doubles finalists and main draw consolation champions receive automatic entry into the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships, Nov. 6-9 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York.
Follow the ITA on Twitter, @ITAtennis, for updates and news from the Riviera/ITA Women's All-American Championships or search for the hashtag #RivieraITA to find other tweets from those tweeting the events.
Visit 12thMan.com for more information on Texas A&M women's tennis. Aggie fans also can keep up to date with the A&M women's tennis team on Twitter by following @AggieWTEN or on Facebook at Facebook.com/AggieWomensTennis.