Texas Women’s Tennis Preview: ITA All-American Championships
WHAT: Texas is set to compete in its second fall tournament, the annual ITA All-American Championships, one of three national championship events on the college tennis calendar.
WHEN: The tournament’s pre-qualifying singles and doubles draws will be contested Saturday, Sept. 28 and Sunday, Sept. 29. Competition in the qualifying singles and doubles draws will progress from Tuesday, Oct. 1 through Wednesday, Oct. 2. The main draws will be contested Thursday, Oct. 3 through Sunday, Oct. 6.
WHERE: UCLA will host the pre-qualifying singles and doubles matches. The remainder of the tournament will move to Riviera Tennis Club (Pacific Palisades, Calif.)
WHO: Senior Elizabeth Begley will open play Saturday in the pre-qualifying singles draw against Virginia’s Marie Faure. Freshman Ratnika Batra will take on Erin Stephens of Ole Miss. Begley and Batra will take on Jessy Rompies and Romy Koelzer of Clemson in the first round of the pre-qualifying doubles draw.
Sophomore Breaunna Addison will join freshman Pippa Horn in the opening round of the qualifying doubles draw. Addison will open competition in the main singles draw Oct. 3.
ITA Preseason Singles Rankings
10. Breaunna Addison
124. Elizabeth Begley
ITA Preseason Doubles Rankings
41. Breaunna Addison/Pippa Horn
LAST TIME OUT: Breaunna Addison won four singles matches and claimed the white singles bracket at the Duke Invitational (Sept. 15).
THE 2013-14 LONGHORNS
Under ninth-year head coach Patty Fendick-McCain, Texas returns six student-athletes from the 2012-13 squad that won UT’s second consecutive Big 12 Championship and landed at No. 17 in the final ITA team rankings.
As a first-semester freshman last spring, Breaunna Addison became just the third Longhorn ever to reach the singles semifinals at the NCAA Championships and the first freshman to do so.
The Boca Raton, Fla., native became the first UT freshman to earn ITA singles All-America honors since Susan Gilchrist in 1990. Addison tallied 30 singles wins and was selected as the Big 12 Conference Freshman of the Year.
Senior Elizabeth Begley has won two Big 12 individual titles and tallied 62 singles victories in her last two seasons. The Houston native earned her first ITA ranking this month and is featured at No. 124 in singles.
Former Big 12 Freshman of the Year Lina Padegimaite returns after posting 13 dual-match wins last season as a junior. Classmate Annat Rabinovich added a pair of dual-match wins last season.
Texas also returns senior Juliana Gajic and sophomore Lana Groenvynck, who clinched UT’s Big 12 Championship semifinal win over Texas Tech last season. Freshman Ratnika Batra (New Delhi, India) reached the second round of the girls’ singles draw at the 2012 Roland Garros (French Open) Junior Championships. Freshman Pippa Horn (Norwich, Norfolk, England) competed at the last three Wimbledon Junior Championships.
