Oct. 20, 2010
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame women’s tennis team is set to begin action at the ITA Midwest Regional on Thursday at the Varsity Tennis Center in Ann Arbor, Mich. The tournament, which will run from Thursday-Tuesday, will get underway with the singles qualifying draw.
The Irish will see two of their team members begin their tournament on Thursday, as Julie Sabacinski (Plantation, Fla.) and JoHanna Manningham (Mishawaka, Ind.) compete in the qualifying bracket in search of a berth into the main draw.
Sabacinski enters the draw as the qualifiers bracket No. 1 seed and receives a first-round bye. She faces the winner of the match between Jill Pastunink of Western Michigan and Kari Wig of Michigan in the round of 32.
Manningham gets her tournament underway with a match against Alex Power of Cleveland State, which is scheduled to get underway at 10 a.m. With a win, she advances to take on Kara Cecil of Ohio State later in the day for a spot in the round of 16.
The list of 48 qualifiers will get pared down to the final eight. Those eight members then enter into the singles main draw, which will begin play on Saturday and conclude on Tuesday, as 48 of the region’s best compete for a berth to the ITA Indoor Singles/Doubles Championships, Nov. 4-7.
Doubles play, which will get underway on Friday with two rounds of play, consists of a 48-team main draw. The championship match is scheduled to take place on Monday.
The remaining six Irish players – Kristy Frilling (Sidney, Ohio), Shannon Mathews (Birmingham, Mich.), Chrissie McGaffigan (Davenport, Iowa), Jennifer Kellner (Smithtown, N.Y.), Kristen Rafael (Grand Prairie, Texas), Britney Sanders (Ontario, Calif.) – will take to the courts on Friday and Saturday in main singles and doubles draw action.
Participating schools include Michigan, Akron, Cleveland State, DePaul, Detroit-Mercy, Eastern Illinois, Eastern Michigan, Illinois, IPFW, Michigan State, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Toledo, Western Michigan, Wisconsin and Youngstown State.
Check back with und.com each day for a complete recap of the Irish at the 2010 ITA Midwest Regional.
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