News release from Texas A&M Athletics:
ANN ARBOR – Two Aggies will represent Texas A&M women’s tennis in the ITA Sectional Championship at Michigan’s Varsity Tennis Center Thursday to Sunday for a chance to qualify for the NCAA Championships.
The ITA Sectional Championship features a 32-player singles draw and a 16-team doubles draw. Six singles players and three doubles teams from each section will qualify for the NCAA Championships.
The teams competing in the Central Sectional Championships include Texas A&M, Michigan, Baylor, Kansas State, Texas Tech, Illinois, Northwestern, Iowa, TCU, Memphis, Ohio State, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Tulsa, Iowa State, Houston and Texas, .
Representing the aggies are Daria Smetannikov and No. 9 Nicole Khirin. Smetannikov was one match away from earning a spot in the NCAA Singles Championships after battling all the way to the ITA Texas Regional Semifinals. The Junior won the H-E-B invitational blue draw singles title and has a 10-3 singles record to start the year.
Khirin claimed 28 singles victories and 20 doubles victories in her sophomore season, including 16 ranked singles wins. She garnered All-SEC First Team as well as NCAA All-Tournament Team honors in both singles and doubles. Khirin was also named as the Texas Region ITA Player to Watch this season.
Matches begin on Thursday with singles starting at 10 a.m., followed by doubles at 2:30 p.m. In the singles round of 32, Khirin takes on Michigan’s Emily Sartz-Lunde and Smetannikov battles Iowa’s Daianne Hayashida. The two will then pair in doubles to face TCU’s No. 47 Tomi Main and Yu-Chin Tsai.