Frogs Ready For ITA Southwest Regional
10/14/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Oct. 14, 2004
The TCU women's tennis team will send nine players to the campus of Texas A&M on Oct. 15-19 for the ITA Southwest Regional where they will try to qualify for the ITA National Indoor Championships in Michigan.
Four TCU players, juniors Helena Besovic and Gloriann Lopez and freshmen Andrea Morgado and Kewa Nichols will begin competition in the field's main draw.
Besovic, the No. 5 seed, enters play with a 9-2 fall record after she advanced to the Round of 16 at the Riviera/ITA Qualifier. This season, Besovic has already faced four of the players that are seeded in the field and she holds an even 2-2 record in those matches. Besovic has defeated the No. 1 seed, Petra Dizdar of Texas and the No. 9 seed Blair DiSesa of Rice. She fell to the No. 2 seed Caroline Walter of Baylor in the semifinals of the Baylor Invitational and the No. 6 seed Nancy Kockett of Tulane knocked her out of the Riviera's last weekend.
Lopez will be making her first significant action for the team. In the season opener, Lopez played one match at Baylor before retiring due to an injury. Morgado has a 6-1 record this fall, which includes a singles title at the Mean Green Invitational. She also won the backdraw at the Rice Tennis Classic at the end of September. Nichols, meanwhile, enters the weekend with a 2-3 fall record. She split four matches at Baylor before falling in her opening match at the Riviera/ITA pre-qualifier.
Four additional players, seniors Karla Mancinas and Paige Brown and freshmen Lindsay McBride and Melissa Bere, will try and move through the qualifying singles into the main draw. Mancinas is the No. 1 seed in the bracket, while Brown has the No. 6 seed. The top eight players from the qualifying draw will move on.
In doubles main draw, the Frogs will have four teams competing. Senior Story Tweedie-Yates and Nichols will team up for the first time this season as the No. 8 seed. Tweedie-Yates isn't competing in singles this weekend because she has already qualified for the ITA National Indoor Championships after she advanced to the quarterfinals last week in Pacific Palisades, Calif.
Besovic and Mancinas, the No. 9 seed, will play together in their third tournament of the season as they've compiled a 3-2 record this fall. Statistically, Morgado and Brown have been the best doubles team for the Frogs so far this season. The pair has a 6-1 overall record with a championship at the Mean Green Invitational. Bere and McBride round out the group as they will be playing together for the second time this season. The pair is 0-2 after they dropped two matches in Denton on September 18.
"This weekend will be the first time that the entire team will be playing together," said Head Coach Dave Borelli. "This tournament will be a chance to get some of the players some experience and to see how much they've improved this fall."
Players Mentioned
