COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Members of the Texas A&M women's tennis team kick off the fall tournament season Saturday as they begin competition at the prestigious Riviera/ITA Women's All-American Championships, the first national championship tournament of the 2016-17 season.
Pre-qualifying matches are slated to begin Saturday at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., with qualifying matches starting Oct. 4 and main draw contests getting underway Oct. 6 at the Riviera Tennis Club in Pacific Palisades, California. The singles and doubles finals are scheduled for Oct. 9.
"We are looking forward to competing in the prestigious All-American event," said Mark Weaver, who is beginning his second season as head coach of the Aggies. "The girls who will be competing have been training extremely hard and have played at a very high level on the practice courts over the course of the last few weeks. Having said that, this will be our first competition since returning this summer, which obviously brings a completely different set of variables. Also throw in the fact that every player we will face is basically the best of the best in the nation beginning in the pre-qualifying segment of the tournament. This will be a great indicator as to how we compare to the other top programs in the nation, and I am looking forward to that aspect of it as well. Regardless of how well we fair, [Associate Head Coach Patrick Sullivan] and I couldn't be more pleased with how our team is progressing thus far."
Aggie newcomers Tina Bokhua, the 2015 ITA Mountain Region Rookie of the Year, and Macarena Olivares, a junior transfer who was a two-time All-American in both singles and doubles at ASA College in Miami, make their Texas A&M debut in the pre-qualifying portion of the tournament, competing in the 64-player singles draw and also teaming together in the 32-team doubles draw. Senior Rachel Pierson also will compete in the singles pre-qualifier, and she is a No. 3-8 seed in doubles with senior partner Rutuja Bhosale.
Action gets underway with doubles play at 9 a.m. (all times are Pacific) on Saturday with Bokhua and Olivares taking on Anastasia Rychagova and Tess Bernard Feigenbaum of Kansas and Pierson and Bhosale facing Petra Horakova and Stefana Andrei of Louisiana Monroe. Winners advance to the second round, to be played Sunday at 10:15 a.m.
In singles, Pierson opens against Mariana Gould of Georgia at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, with the winner returning to the courts at 2 p.m. for second-round action.
In other first-round matches, Olivares takes on UCLA's Ena Shibahara, No. 2 in the ITA national newcomer/freshman rankings, and Bokhua faces Sybille Gauvain of San Jose State at 2 p.m. The winners of the 2 p.m. first-round matches are slated to play second-round matches at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Third-round singles matches will be contested Sunday at 12:30 p.m., with winners advancing to the qualifying round beginning Oct. 4.
Bhosale will compete in the qualifying round of singles. She enters the tournament ranked a career-high No. 45 according to the ITA preseason singles rankings. Senior Saska Gavrilovska, who opens the fall season ranked a career-high 15 after advancing to the second round of the 2016 NCAA Singles Championship, will compete in the main draw beginning Oct. 6.
Main draw singles semifinalists, main draw doubles finalists and main draw consolation champions will receive automatic entry into the 2016 USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships, Nov. 3-6 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, New York.
Updated draws and main draw daily recaps can be found at the ITA Championship Central page http://www.itatennis.com/Events/ITANationalChampionships/WomensAllAmerican.htm. FloTennis will provide live streaming of the main draw matches (four courts) at www.flotennis.com. Information also can be obtained on Twitter by following @ITA_Tennis and using the hashtag #RivieraITA.
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.
Saturday, October 1 (Pepperdine University, Malibu, Calif.)
Pre-Qualifier – Singles (all times are Pacific)
R64 #91 Rachel Pierson (A&M) vs. Mariana Gould (UGA), 10:30 a.m.
R64 #102 Tina Bokhua (A&M) vs. Sybille Gauvain (SJSU), 2 p.m.
R64 Macarena Olivares (A&M) vs. Ena Shibahara (UCLA), 2 p.m.
Pre-Qualifier – Doubles (all times are Pacific)
R32 Pierson/Rutuja Bhosale (A&M) vs. Petra Horakova/Stefana Andrei (ULM), 9 a.m.
R32 Bokhua/Olivares (A&M) vs. Anastasia Rychagova/Tess Bernard-Feigenbaum (KU), 9 a.m.
Pre-qualifying matches are slated to begin Saturday at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., with qualifying matches starting Oct. 4 and main draw contests getting underway Oct. 6 at the Riviera Tennis Club in Pacific Palisades, California. The singles and doubles finals are scheduled for Oct. 9.
"We are looking forward to competing in the prestigious All-American event," said Mark Weaver, who is beginning his second season as head coach of the Aggies. "The girls who will be competing have been training extremely hard and have played at a very high level on the practice courts over the course of the last few weeks. Having said that, this will be our first competition since returning this summer, which obviously brings a completely different set of variables. Also throw in the fact that every player we will face is basically the best of the best in the nation beginning in the pre-qualifying segment of the tournament. This will be a great indicator as to how we compare to the other top programs in the nation, and I am looking forward to that aspect of it as well. Regardless of how well we fair, [Associate Head Coach Patrick Sullivan] and I couldn't be more pleased with how our team is progressing thus far."
Aggie newcomers Tina Bokhua, the 2015 ITA Mountain Region Rookie of the Year, and Macarena Olivares, a junior transfer who was a two-time All-American in both singles and doubles at ASA College in Miami, make their Texas A&M debut in the pre-qualifying portion of the tournament, competing in the 64-player singles draw and also teaming together in the 32-team doubles draw. Senior Rachel Pierson also will compete in the singles pre-qualifier, and she is a No. 3-8 seed in doubles with senior partner Rutuja Bhosale.
Action gets underway with doubles play at 9 a.m. (all times are Pacific) on Saturday with Bokhua and Olivares taking on Anastasia Rychagova and Tess Bernard Feigenbaum of Kansas and Pierson and Bhosale facing Petra Horakova and Stefana Andrei of Louisiana Monroe. Winners advance to the second round, to be played Sunday at 10:15 a.m.
In singles, Pierson opens against Mariana Gould of Georgia at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, with the winner returning to the courts at 2 p.m. for second-round action.
In other first-round matches, Olivares takes on UCLA's Ena Shibahara, No. 2 in the ITA national newcomer/freshman rankings, and Bokhua faces Sybille Gauvain of San Jose State at 2 p.m. The winners of the 2 p.m. first-round matches are slated to play second-round matches at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Third-round singles matches will be contested Sunday at 12:30 p.m., with winners advancing to the qualifying round beginning Oct. 4.
Bhosale will compete in the qualifying round of singles. She enters the tournament ranked a career-high No. 45 according to the ITA preseason singles rankings. Senior Saska Gavrilovska, who opens the fall season ranked a career-high 15 after advancing to the second round of the 2016 NCAA Singles Championship, will compete in the main draw beginning Oct. 6.
Main draw singles semifinalists, main draw doubles finalists and main draw consolation champions will receive automatic entry into the 2016 USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships, Nov. 3-6 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, New York.
Updated draws and main draw daily recaps can be found at the ITA Championship Central page http://www.itatennis.com/Events/ITANationalChampionships/WomensAllAmerican.htm. FloTennis will provide live streaming of the main draw matches (four courts) at www.flotennis.com. Information also can be obtained on Twitter by following @ITA_Tennis and using the hashtag #RivieraITA.
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.
Saturday, October 1 (Pepperdine University, Malibu, Calif.)
Pre-Qualifier – Singles (all times are Pacific)
R64 #91 Rachel Pierson (A&M) vs. Mariana Gould (UGA), 10:30 a.m.
R64 #102 Tina Bokhua (A&M) vs. Sybille Gauvain (SJSU), 2 p.m.
R64 Macarena Olivares (A&M) vs. Ena Shibahara (UCLA), 2 p.m.
Pre-Qualifier – Doubles (all times are Pacific)
R32 Pierson/Rutuja Bhosale (A&M) vs. Petra Horakova/Stefana Andrei (ULM), 9 a.m.
R32 Bokhua/Olivares (A&M) vs. Anastasia Rychagova/Tess Bernard-Feigenbaum (KU), 9 a.m.