 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
William Smith to host Wilson/ITA Northeast Championships
September 20, 2006
 |
GENEVA, N.Y.—On Sept. 22-24, the William Smith College tennis team will play host to the Wilson/Intercollegiate Tennis Association Northeast Region Championships. The event is one of 61 played across the country over the last three weeks of September.
The Wilson/ITA Northeast Women’s Championships at William Smith will feature the top NCAA Division III schools in the region. The singles and doubles champions from this weekend’s tournament advance to the Oct. 12-15 Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Small College Championships at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers.
Twenty-one colleges and universities will be represented by their top tennis athletes this weekend on the campus of Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Play begins at 8:30 a.m. on Sept. 22, and will take place at the HWS Tennis Center and in the Bristol Field House.
In the 64-player singles bracket, William Smith sophomore Chelsea Rauck (Columbus School for Girls/Bexley, Ohio) is the top seed. Jackie Shtemberg and Haley Kutner, both from The College of New Jersey, are the second and third-seeded players, respectively.
TCNJ’s Shtemberg and Christina Contrafatto hold the top seed in the 32-team doubles bracket, while New Paltz’s Dana Lim and Eri Yamakawa are seeded second.
The ITA National Small College Championships began in 1986 and annually crowns men’s and women’s singles and doubles national champions in each of the ITA’s four small college divisions (NCAA Divisions II and III, NAIA and Junior/Community College). Participants are determined through these Wilson/ITA Regional Championships, which serve as qualifying tournaments. The national champions from each division square off in the “Super Bowl” of Small College Tennis to determine the overall ITA National Small College Champions (who then earn berths into the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, a Division I event, in November).
As the governing body of collegiate tennis the ITA promotes both the athletic and academic achievements of the collegiate tennis community. The ITA, which was founded in 1956 and is based in Skillman, N.J., administers numerous regional and national championships, the ITA Collegiate Summer Circuit presented by the USTA, and the ITA Rankings for men’s and women’s tennis at the NCAA Divisions I, II and III, NAIA and Junior College levels. The ITA also has a comprehensive awards program for players and coaches to honor excellence in academics, leadership and sportsmanship. The official ITA website is www.itatennis.com.