Women’s Tennis To Start Play Thursday at ITA Carolina Regional Championships

Oct. 19, 2011

CHAPEL HILL, NC – Members of the Clemson women’s tennis team will open play at the ITA Carolina Region Championships held in Chapel Hill, NC from Oct. 20-24. Qualifying play begins on Thursday, with Main Draw starting on Friday in doubles and Saturday for singles.

Josipa Bek is a two-time singles champion of the event, in 2008 and 2009, and was the runner-up last year. She and Keri Wong, ranked No. 1 nationally in doubles, are the reigning doubles champions as well. The Carolina Region includes players from many schools in North and South Carolina, one of the most powerful regions in collegiate tennis.

Clemson will join players from top-five teams Duke and North Carolina, as well as Wake Forest, Furman, College of Charleston, South Carolina, NC State, East Carolina, and many other area schools.

The tournament determines on regional champion in both singles and doubles. There is a qualifying draw to get in to the main draw. Champions earn a birth into the ITA National Indoor Championships in Flushing, NY in November.

Five Tigers are in the 64-player main draw of singles, while the Tigers have two doubles teams in the 64-team doubles main draw. Wong and Bek are the No. 1 seed in doubles, while Monika Kochanova and Nelly Ciolkowski will team up in the first round to play Karolina Chenava and Yegorevchenko of Campbell at 3:00 pm on Thursday.

Bek and Wong open on Saturday at 8:00 am after earning a first-round bye. Ciolkowski and Kochanova will play at the same time if they win in the first round.

Bek, Wong, Kochanova, Ciolkowski and Klara Vyskocilova will participate in the main draw singles, which takes place after a qualifying round is completed.