KU Freshman Wins ITA Summer Circuit Event
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Incoming KU freshman Vasiliki Karvouni won the singles title at this weekend’s Oracle Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Summer Circuit powered by UTR event in Norman, Oklahoma. KU sophomores-to-be Julia Deming and Malkia Ngounoue finished runner-up in the doubles bracket of the same event.
All three Jayhawks received byes into the singles round of 32 to start the event. Karvouni, from Athens, Greece, then put together a string of five-consecutive victories to claim the women’s singles title without surrendering more than three games in any set. Ngounoue topped Deming in the quarterfinals, 7-5, 6-0, to reach the semifinals, where the Washington, D.C., native was eliminated by Arkansas’ Tatum Rice in a super tiebreaker 6-7, 6-3 and 10-4. Karvouni then beat Rice in the final, 6-3, 6-1.
In the field of eight doubles teams, Deming and Ngounoue paired together while Karvouni partnered with a rising senior in the class of 2020 from the state of Oklahoma. Both teams were victorious in their quarterfinal matches. In the semifinals, Karvouni and her partner were ousted by the event’s eventual champions, Tatum and Thea Rice of Arkansas. Meanwhile, Deming and Ngounoue reached the final after their opponents withdrew from the competition. The Jayhawks then fell to the Rice sisters in a close final, 8-6, to conclude their first summer circuit competition of 2019.
ABOUT ITA SUMMER CIRCUIT POWERED BY UTR
The ITA Summer Circuit opened this past weekend at 11 sites throughout the country, with 1,026 players registered to compete. The ITA Summer Circuit is currently made up of 56 events over six-consecutive weekends beginning June 22 and continuing through the last weekend in July.
The summer circuit was created to provide college players the opportunity to compete in organized events year-round. Although the primary purpose of the circuit is to provide incoming freshman and collegiate players the chance to compete in the summer months, for NCAA compliance purposes, the events are categorized as “open”; therefore, anyone (including high level juniors and adults) is eligible to compete in these events as long as he/she is a current ITA member.
