Huskers Head to ITA Central Regional Championships

The Nebraska women’s tennis team travels to Lawrence, Kansas, Thursday to compete in the ITA Central Regional Championships. The tournament will kick off with doubles at 9 a.m., followed by singles play throughout the day. Nine Huskers are expected to compete at the tournament.

The ITA Central Regional Championships will feature competition from Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Arkansas, Illinois, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska.

The first round consists of a 128-player bracket and a 64-team doubles bracket on Thursday. Friday features two rounds of singles play and a round of 32 in doubles action. Saturday, the singles and doubles brackets will narrow to the round of 16, before the doubles quarterfinal matches round out the day. On Sunday, quarterfinals and semifinals will in singles play will join the doubles semifinals. Monday will round out the tournament with both the singles and doubles finals.

Starting off doubles play on Thursday will be junior Paula Del Cueto Castillo and sophomore Claire Reifeis as they take on Aliona Ladutska and Grace Ball of UMKC. Sophomore M’Balia Bangoura and freshman Emily Rees will also go up against No. 9 seed Carolina Costamagna and Maria Linares of Kansas State. Junior Vasanti Shinde and sophomore Hayley Haakenstad will team up at 10 a.m. to play Minnesota’s Mehvish Safdar and Barbara Mancera, while the duo of sophomore Jeannie Lozowski and senior Katerina Matysova take on Tulsa’s Shura Poppe and Tamara Kupkova.

In singles play, Castillo will face Minnesota’s Camila Vargas Gomez at 12:30 p.m., while Haakenstad goes up against Bradley’s Victoria Gonzalez. Reifeis will take on Carla Martorell of Kansas. Earlier on at 11:30 a.m., Lozowski will start singles action as she takes on Summer Brills of Drake, as Bangoura faces Wichita State’s Alexandra Lazarova. At 1:30 p.m., Matysova plays Margot Decker of KSU, followed at 3 p.m. by Shinde with a match against Drake’s Joely Lomas. Junior Marina Cozac will finish out the day at 3:30 p.m., as she takes on South Dakota’s Jana Lazarevic, while Rees takes on No. 7 seed Giulia Pairone of Arkansas.

Tennis action will continue through Monday. Daily match recaps and results will be available on Huskers.com following the completion of play each day.

Visit admin.kuathletics.com/signingday/tennis/wten/18/ for periodic match results and live streams of the tennis matches.

Singles Draw
Jeannie Lozowski (NEB) vs. Summer Brills (Drake)
M’Balia Bangoura (NEB) vs. Alexandra Lazarova (WSU)
Paula Del Cueto Castillo (NEB) vs. Camila Vargas Gomez (MINN)
Hayley Haakenstad (NEB) vs. Victoria Gonzalez (Bradley)
Claire Reifeis (NEB) vs. Carla Martorell (KAN)
Katerina Matysova (NEB) vs. Margot Decker (KSU)
Vasanti Shinde (NEB) vs. Joely Lomas (Drake)
Marina Cozac (NEB) vs. Jana Lazarevic (USD)
Emily Rees (NEB) vs. No.7 Giulia Pairone (ARK)

Doubles Draw
Castillo/Reifeis (NEB) vs. Ladutska/Ball (UMKC)
Bangoura/Rees (NEB) vs. Costamagna/Linares (KSU)
Shinde/Haakenstad (NEB) vs. Safdar/Mancera (MINN)
Lozowski/Matysova (NEB) vs. Poppe/Kupkova (Tulsa)