Oct. 19, 2005

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Seven University of Illinois women's tennis players will begin competition at the Wilson/ITA Midwest Regional Championships in East Lansing, Mich., Oct. 20-25. The singles finalists and winning doubles team of the Regional Championships earn spots in the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championship to be held at University of Michigan, Nov. 3-6.

"The kids have really worked hard," head coach Sujay Lama said. "For the part two and a half weeks we have had solid practices and I have seen improvements in all phases of the game. I would like to see good results, but we'll continue to focus on our performance goals."

Three Illini competitors received berths in the 64-player singles main draw: senior Brianna Knue and sophomores Macall Harkins and Momei Qu will begin play following the singles qualifying tournament on Saturday (Oct. 23). They have not participated in competition since the prequalifying rounds of the ITA All-American Championships earlier in October.

Four other members of the Orange and Blue are slated to play in the qualifying rounds: senior Pavlina Akritas, junior Emily Wang, sophomore Alejandra Meza Cuadra and freshman Shivani Dave' will vie for one of eight qualifying spots in the main draw. Akritas, Cuadra and Dave' are tied for the most wins on the team with five.

The Illini will have three pairings in the 64-team doubles main draw. Harkins and Knue will match up together after losing in the doubles prequalifying round of 32 at the ITA All-American Championships. Qu and Wang will try to improve on their 3-1 record together while Cuadra and Dave' round out the Illini's doubles pairings.

There is much at stake in this weekend's tournament. In addition to earning a spot in the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championship, the results of this competition will also go a long way toward determining the regional and national rankings that are released prior to the spring dual match season.

"The competition will be strong this weekend," Lama said. "Our region is really tough and there won't be one easy match. I'm excited to see our improvements and see the results of the hard work we have put in the past couple weeks."

Illinois results and complete bracket information can be found at www.fightingillini.com or at www.itatennis.com.