Nov. 1, 2005
WACO, Texas - In Columbus, Ohio, this weekend, Zuzana Cerna will represent Baylor's women's tennis team in the 22nd annual Intercollegiate Tennis Association's National Indoor Championships. Ohio State University hosts this year's tournament which begins Thursday, Nov. 3 at the Racquet Club of Columbus. The championship marks the second of three to be played throughout the 2005-2006 season, the first being October's ITA All-American Championships and the last being May's NCAA Championships.
Cerna qualified for an automatic bid after sweeping through the Wilson/ITA Southwest Regional tournament in October. She defeated five opponents to reach the tournament's finals where she was defeated by teammate Zuzana Zemenova. Cerna is ranked 122nd nationally and was the twelfth seed in the regional tournament. Zemenova, who also received an automatic spot for the National Indoor Championships, has elected not to participate this weekend.
The tournament consists of a 32-player singles field and a 16-team doubles field for both men and women. Bids were given to qualifiers from fall tournaments including the country-wide Wilson/ITA Regional Championships, ITA National Small College champions, the Polo Ralph Lauren Men's All-American, and the Riviera/ITA Women's All-American. In order to fill the 32 slots, at-large and wild card selections were also given out by the ITA National Indoor Tournament committee.
This weekend's women's top singles seed is TCU's Nicole Leimbach who won the Riviera/ITA All-American singles title earlier last month. Notre Dame's twin duo of Catrina and Christian Thompson are the women's doubles' first seed.
Matches begin Thursday morning at 8:30 with doubles. Singles will follow beginning at 10:30 a.m. Baylor's Cerna will play the day's 34th match in her first round pairing against Kentucky's Kim Coventry who is the country's 15th-ranked player.
Cerna's results will be posted at www.baylorbears.com while full tournament results can be found at www.itatennis.com.
ITA National Indoor Championships
Baylor's Schedule
Thursday, Nov. 3
Kim Coventry (Kentucky) vs. Zuzana Cerna (Baylor)- Winner plays on Friday, Nov. 4.
All times listed are Pacific.
