News release from Texas A&M Athletics:
FORT WORTH – The Texas A&M women’s tennis team travels this weekend to compete in the ITA Texas Regional Championship at TCU’s Friedman Tennis Center for a chance to qualify for the NCAA Individual Championships.
The ITA is conducting 13 regional championships. Two singles finalists from each region qualify for the NCAA Singles Championship, while the doubles champion from each region heads to the NCAA Doubles Championship.
Five Aggies made the trip, including No. 9 Nicole Khirin, No. 88 Jeanette Mireles, Daria Smetannikov, Lizanne Boyer and Lexington Reed. The Maroon & White begin the tournament Friday morning in the doubles main draw, with Smetannikov/Boyer and Mireles/Reed representing Texas A&M. All five players will battle in the singles main draw.
Smetannikov/Boyer take on ACU’s Masha Vrsalovic/Alice Klinteby in the round of 64 at 8 a.m., while Mireles/Reed begin in the round of 32 at 10:15 a.m.
Matchups for the singles main draw will be determined after the conclusion of Thursday’s singles qualifying draw and will begin Friday at 11:30 a.m.
Khirin kicked off her season at the ITA All-American Championships, where she claimed her first ranked singles win of the season versus Stanford’s No. 77 Valencia Xu. The junior looks to qualify for the NCAA Individual Championships for the second-straight season for the Aggies.
Mireles began her season at the ITA All-American championships as well and paired with Khirin to grab their first ranked doubles win of the year against BYU’s No. 52 Kendall Kovick/Sue Yan Tan.
Smetannikov heads into the tournament on a three-match winning streak after going undefeated in the H-E-B Invitational to claim the blue draw singles title. Reed made her Aggie debut at the same invitational, grabbing two singles wins and pairing with Smetannikov for two doubles victories. Boyer added her first singles win of the season in the tournament as well.