Four Wildcats Headed to USTA/ITA National Indoor Championships
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LEXINGTON, Ky. – Four members of the Kentucky women’s tennis team will head to Flushing, New York this weekend to compete in the USTA/ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center which will run Nov. 3-6. UK’s Aldila Sutjiadi/Mami Adachi and Justina Mikulskyte/Lesedi Jacobs will play in the doubles draw, with Sutjiadi as the lone Wildcat in the singles competition.
The No. 1 preseason-ranked pair, senior Sutjiadi and junior Adachi received an automatic bid to the championships by winning the main draw consolation bracket at the ITA All-American Championships in early October. Following a first-round bye, they will take on Michigan’s Kate Fahey/Alex Najarian in the second round on Thursday. The match is slated to begin at 3:15 p.m. ET.
A younger UK tandem, freshman Jacobs and sophomore Mikulskyte teamed up to win the Ohio Valley Regional Championships doubles’ title to earn a berth into this weekend’s championship. The pair earned a quick victory over Vanderbilt’s veteran combination of Sharma/Kurtz, 6-3, 6-4 in the championship match. The two will face another Southeastern Conference duo in Alabama’s Andie Danielle/Erin Routliffe at 12:15 p.m. on Thursday.
Sutjiadi also earned her singles bid via the Ohio Valley Regionals, where she took down Vanderbilt’s Sydney Campbell in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6(5) to secure the singles’ title. Sutjiadi will be the first Wildcat to hit the court, as she takes on SEC foe Florida’s Josie Kuhlman at 9 a.m. on Thursday.
This will mark the third consecutive year the Wildcats have been represented in the Indoor Championships, all of which included appearances by Sutjiadi. However, this will be the first time she has qualified for the singles draw.
Last season saw Kentucky’s best finish in the tournament since 1988, as Sutjiadi/Adachi finished as the runners-up in the title match, falling to North Carolina’s Haley Carter/Whitney Kay in a tiebreak, 4-6, 6-4, 1-0(6).
Hosted by Columbia University, the Indoor Championships serves as the final major tournament of the fall season. The event features some of the best collegiate tennis players in the country in its 32-player singles draw and 20-team doubles draw.
In order to qualify for the event, participants either must be winners of the UTSA/ITA Division I Regional Championships, winners of the ITA Oracle Cup or be consolation champions, doubles finalists, men's singles quarterfinalists or women's singles semifinalists from the Saint Francis ITA Men’s and Riviera/ITA Women's All-American Championships.
For the latest on the Kentucky women’s tennis program, follow @UKWomensTennis on Twitter and Instagram, on Facebook at Facebook.com/UKWomensTennis, and on the web at UKathletics.com.