By Laurean Love
Reporter
Both men’s and women’s tennis travel this weekend with chances to earn spots in the national championships.
Men’s tennis will be in College Station for the USTA/ITA Texas Regional today through Monday, and women’s tennis will be participating in the USTA/ITA Texas Regional today through Tuesday in Fort Worth.
There are 12 regionals held around the country during October. The singles and doubles champions from each tournament qualify for the 2011 USTA/ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships to be held on Nov. 3-6 at the indoor facilities at the STA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N. Y.
Six members of the men’s team will participate in Baylor’s second Intercollegiate Tennis Association tournament this fall at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.
Freshmen Lars Behlen, Marko Krickovic and Mate Zsiga, sophomore Robert Verzaal, junior Roberto Maytin and senior Kike Grangeiro will be competing in the singles bracket.
Grangeiro will be competing for the first time in his collegiate career after suffering an eye injury last summer.
For men’s doubles, Maytin and Zsiga, Behlen and Grangeiro and Verzaal and Krickovic have been paired together.
This will be the first time any of the doubles teams have played together.
Zsiga enters the tournament with the best team record at 7-1.
Zsiga’s only loss was against Auburn’s 70th-ranked Andreas Miles in the second round of the ITA All-American Tournament earlier this month.
Behlen is sporting a 6-2 mark, while the 43rd-ranked Maytin is 5-2.
Zsiga, who gained entry into the Mansfield Future tournament’s main draw by winning the wild card tournament, lost on Tuesday to Dennis Nevolo of the USA, 6-3, 6-1, while Behlen, who was one of eight players to qualify for the main draw, lost to the tournament’s No. 6 seed Chris Easton of Great Britain 6-4, 6-2.
Three members of the women’s team will play in the tournament at TCU’s Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center.
Senior Diana Nakic, sophomore Jordaan Sanford and freshman Megan Horter will compete in singles, while Nakic and Sanford will pair for doubles.
“This is another chance to play top-level competition, and keep working on the things we need to do to get better,” women’s head coach Joey Scrivano said in a press release. “There will be some great competition at this tournament, and a lot is on the line with the chance to advance to the indoor nationals.”
Baylor women will have three singles entries, including two seeded, and one seeded pair in doubles.
Nakic, carrying a 7-3 record in two tournaments this season, is seeded fourth in the field.
Sanford is seeded fifth and has a 2-2 record. Nakic and Sanford will be joined by freshman Megan Horter, who enters unseeded.
In doubles, Nakic and Sanford will play together for the first time, earning the field’s No. 3 seed.
Nakic had paired with Horter last weekend for a 1-1 record, while Sanford previously paired with freshman Nicole Kosakowski this season and had 2-2 marks with a berth in the HEB Baylor Invitational final.
Men’s tennis will continue the regional portion of their schedule at the Niceville Future Oct. 31-Nov. 2 in Niceville.
After the ITA Regional, women’s tennis will play next in the Jack Kramer Club Invitational Oct. 28-30 in Rolling Hills, Calif.
