KU To Host ITA Summer Circuit
July 21, 2005
Lawrence, Kan. — The 2005 Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Summer Circuit, presented by the United States Tennis Association, comes to town this weekend as the University of Kansas hosts week three of Central Region play, July 23-25, at Robinson tennis courts.
Matches will get underway on Saturday at 8 a.m., and will run all day. Action resumes on Sunday at 9 a.m., while semifinal and final action will begin around 9 a.m. on Monday morning.
The men’s and women’s divisions will each consist of a draw of 32 players. The top four seeds for the women’s draw are Elizaveta Avdeeva of Kansas, Shannon Brown of Marshall, Brianna Knue of Illinois and Erika Josbena of Missouri. The top four men’s seeds are Brett Brinkley of Marquette, J.P. Ritchie of Iowa, Sean McMannis of Saint Louis and Bart Von Monsjou of Iowa.
Joining Avdeeva representing KU will be Brittany Brown, Ashley Filberth and Stephanie Smith who will all play singles. For doubles play, Avdeeva will pair with Brown, while Filberth and Smith will work together.
KU assistant tennis coach Frank Polito is the tournament director for the Central Region.
The ITA Collegiate Summer Circuit is made up of six regional circuits (East, Southeast, Midwest, Central, Southwest and West) for collegiate players (events are also open to junior players and the general public). Each region consists of four consecutive tournaments played during the month of July. The ITA Collegiate Summer Circuit began in 1993 and had a record 2,067 players participate in last year’s events. All told, over 15,000 players have competed in circuit events since `93. Indiana University women’s coach Lin Loring came up with the concept to begin the circuit and serves as its overall director. Four additional tournaments in a Central Region circuit was added for this year due to the circuit’s growing popularity.
Each tournament on the circuit includes men’s and women’s singles and doubles.
The ITA National Summer Championships, presented by the USTA, are the pinnacle of the ITA Collegiate Summer Circuit. This year’s tournament takes place Aug. 13-16 at Indiana University. Champions from this tournament gain wild cards into the Icy ITA Men’s and Riviera/ITA Women’s All-American Championships in October, the first national tournaments of the 2005-06 collegiate tennis season. Ohio State’s Scott Green and Ross Wilson captured last year’s doubles title at the ITA National Summer Championships and went on to sweep the doubles titles at the ITA All-American and National Indoor Championships during the fall.
Information about the ITA Summer Circuit can be found at www.itatennis.com.
