Doubles draws | Singles draw
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Seven members of the Slippery Rock University women’s tennis team will compete for regional supremacy as they enter the 2024 Intercollegiate Tennis Association Atlantic Region Championships this weekend at the Burt Reese Tennis Center on the campus of Bloomsburg University.
The ITA Atlantic Region Championships consist of two draws: the Championship Singles Tournament and the Championship Doubles Tournament. SRU has three entries in the 32-team doubles field and seven members participating in the 64-athlete singles draw.
The winners of the doubles and doubles will go on to compete in the prestigious ITA Cup on the 10th-13th. October in Rome, Georgia.
This weekend’s matches will be The Rock’s third individual competition of the season. Team members previously competed in the Carnegie Mellon Invitational and Husky Invitational.
DIRECT ACTIONS
The live results of this weekend’s matches will be published HERE.
SCHEDULE
Friday (start 9.00)
First round of doubling
Doubles semi-final 16
First round of singles
Saturday (start 9.00)
Doubles quarterfinals
Simple round 32
Simple round 16
Sunday (starts at 10 a.m.)
Doubles semi-finals
Singles quarterfinals
Singles semifinals
Monday (starts at 10 a.m.)
Doubles finals
Singles Finals
SINGLES PREVIEW
Four of The Rock’s seven terms are seeded as leaders Amaia Balaguer Brauwho goes to the top of the singles series at the weekend. Slippery Rock’s other seeded picks include No. 8 Nicole KemptonNo. 10 Alissia Kivi and No. 14 From Sakhanova.
Balaguer Brau will begin her championship journey against West Chester’s Alexandra Cave in the opening round, followed by a potential match against either Veronica Sirci (IUP) or Lauren Ceballos (Frostburg State) in the 32nd round. in the round. Balaguer Brau, who is 2-1 in singles matches this season, is the reigning Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division Athlete of the Year. He reached the semifinals in last year’s regional series.
Kempton opens the tournament against fellow PSAC West foe Leandra Guldimann of California (Pa.). Fresh off being named the PSAC West Freshman of the Year a season ago, Kempton has started his sophomore campaign by winning three of his first four singles matches. If successful against Guldimann, she would face the winner of Isabelle Oikawa Torres (IUP) vs. Nicole Ilkovic (Bloomsburg) in a first-round match in the round of 32.
Kivi, a freshman who has enjoyed a promising start to her collegiate career with a 3-1 record early in the season, will look to establish herself as a regional force against Edinboro’s Cecilia Carayol. A possible Round of 32 matchup against veterans Gabriella Lerario dos Santos (West Chester) or Dasha Nakonechna (Bloomsburg) awaits the SRU freshman if she makes it to Carayol.
Sakhanova, The Rock’s last entry, continues her junior season against West Virginia State’s Amanda Menendez Thomasson. Sakhanova looks to avenge a tight three-set loss to Thomasson starting in 2023. A former All-PSAC West honoree, Sakhanova is a nearly perfect 3-1 in limited singles this year.
An interesting potential second-round matchup is in play with Sakhanova, who could face former teammate Teddi Isherwood — now of California (Pa.) — if both advance from the round of 64. The pair were teammates at The Rock in 2022-23 when Sakhanova was a rookie and eventually the PSAC West Freshman of the Year.
SRU’s unseeded singles competitors consist of Georgie Lancaster, Tina Slovakia and Marika Kempinski.
Lancaster, who has split her first four singles matches this year, will face Maria Salome Molina of Salem, while Slovakia will face No. 5 seed Lieselotte Hartlohner (IUP) and Kempinski will draw Charleston’s Michelle Connor.
DOUBLE PREVIEW
Highlighting The Rock’s three doubles pairings qualified for this year’s ITA Atlantic Region Championships is the third-place team of Kempton and Kiv.
It should come as no surprise that Kempton and Kivi have such a lofty seed, the duo has posted an impressive 6-1 record in their first year as a team. They face Davis & Elkins’ Fabienne Lahn / Erin Laubscher. A possible rematch from the Husky Invitational against Bloomsburg’s Alexis Quackenbush/Jennifer McDonald — the SRU pair won the event — awaits in the Round of 16.
Rock veterans Balaguer Brau and Lancaster head to Bloomsburg as the tournament’s eighth-seeded team and set up a first-round tilt with West Virginia Wesleyan’s Dominique Van Vuuren and Sneha Sundaraneed. Lancaster and Balaguer Brau did not play in a single game a year ago and are 2-2 going into the 2024-25 season.
Rounding out The Rock’s doubles this weekend is the highly successful pairing of Slovakia and Sakhanova. A staple in SRU’s doubleheader doubles lineup, Slovakia and Sakhanova have produced a stellar 33-14 (.702) career partnership. They will face Lauren Ceballos / Alyssa Kush of Frostburg State, who Slovakia and Sakhanova beat 6-3 last season.
NEXT UP
Slippery Rock returns to Bloomsburg to wrap up the single leg of its 2024-25 schedule on June 5-6. October at the Fall Flighted Championships.
SRU FIRST BOOK SCHEDULE
Singles
No. 1 Amaia Balaguer Brau vs Alexandra Cave (West Chester)
No. 8 Nicole Kempton vs. Leandra Guldimann (California)
No. 10 Alissia Kivi vs. Cecilia Carayol (Edinboro)
No. 14 From Sakhanova vs. Amanda Menendez Thomasson (West Virginia State)
Marika Kempinski vs. Michelle Connor (Charleston)
Tina Slovakia vs. No. 5 Lieselotte Hartlohner (Indiana (Pa.)
Georgie Lancaster vs. Maria Salome Molina (Salem)
DOUBLE
No. 3 Kivi / Kempton vs. Fabienne Lahn / Erin Laubscher (Davis & Elkins)
No. 8 Balaguer Brau / Lancaster vs. Dominique Van Vuuren / Sneha Sundaraneedi (Wesleyan)
Slovakia / Sakhanova vs. Lauren Ceballos / Alyssa Kush (Frostburg State)
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