Tennis Set to Compete at ITA Midwest Regional

Tennis at 2023 ITA Midwest Regional Championships
Date	Thursday, Oct. 12 - Tuesday, Oct. 17
Venue	Indoor Tennis Facility at Michigan State University \| East Lansing, Mich.
Preview Info	EMU Notes (PDF)
Watch	Video (provided by MSU)
Results	Draws
Social Media	X: @EMUEaglesTennis \| Instagram: @EMU_Tennis

EAST LANSING, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) - The Eastern Michigan University tennis team is set for its second tournament of the fall season as the Eagles will send a group of five players to the ITA Midwest Regional Championships, Oct. 12-16, in East Lansing, Mich. The event, one of 14 regional competitions held throughout the nation, will be held at Michigan State University's Indoor Tennis Facility. The tournaments, which features singles and doubles competitions, feature 23 teams with the singles and doubles winners earning a berth into the national tournament.

FIRST SERVES
» The ITA Midwest Regional Championships is the second of four fall events for Eastern Michigan this season after the Eagles played in the Redbird Invitational at Illinois State, Sept. 29-Oct. 1.
» Eastern will be represented by five players in the singles tournament, including Sabina Brichackova in the main draw while Linda Eloundou, Andrea Quiroz, Ksyusha Saenko, and Prerna Vichare will need to win two qualifying round matches to reach the main draw.
» The Eagles also will send two doubles teams to compete with Sabina Brichackova and Prerna Vichare forming one team and Andrea Quiroz and Ksyusha Saenko forming the other.
» At the Redbird, freshman Ksyusha Saenko, playing in her first collegiate event, went 3-0 to capture the title at #3 singles. She dropped just one set on the weekend on her way to the title.
» Linda Eloundou had her hand in a pair of tournament titles as she posted a 3-0 mark to win the #6 singles tournament while joining forces with Regina Mendez to win the #4 doubles title at 2-0.
» Eastern sent seven of its eight singles players to the semifinals and five to the finals at the Redbird.
» The Eagles are led by Ryan Kucera, who is in his first year as the team's head coach after being hired Aug. 9. He is joined by first-year assistant coach Maria Potsi.
» Eastern features a roster of nine student-athletes with eight returning from last year. Saenko is the lone newcomer to the program in 2023-24.

DETAILS: ITA MIDWEST REGIONAL
The tournament will feature singles and doubles competitions with the winner of each earning an automatic berth into the ITA All-America Championships next month. Each school is guaranteed four singles and one doubles entry into the tournament with the additional entries accepted through at-large selections. The singles bracket will feature 48 players placed in the main draw with 64 players drawn into the qualifying tournament that will see the quarterfinalists (top 16) advance into the main draw. The doubles tournament will feature only a main draw of 64 teams. Competition in singles begins Thursday, Oct. 12, and doubles Friday, Oct. 13, with the finals set for Monday, Oct. 16, in doubles and Tuesday, Oct. 17, in singles play.

HOW TO FOLLOW ALONG
Results for the matches played will be posted on the ITA Midwest Regional Championships site (https://bit.ly/45pljzU) each day. Additionally, Michigan State will provide live video of matches at https://web.playsight.com/facility/michigan-state-university/home.

SET TO PLAY
The qualifying rounds will be held Thursday, Oct. 12, with four Eagles set to play, including Linda Eloundou, Andrea Quiroz, Ksyusha Saenko, and Prerna Vichare. All four players will need to win twice Thursday to join Sabina Brichackova in the main draw of the tournament that begins Friday, Oct. 13. Doubles action will get underway Friday morning with singles continuing in the afternoon.

IN THE FIELD
Twenty-three teams are set to be represented at the ITA Midwest Regional Championships this week, including five teams from the Mid-American Conference in Eastern Michigan, Bowling Green, Northern Illinois, Toledo, and Western Michigan. The remaining schools represented will include Chicago State, Cleveland State, DePaul, Eastern Illinois, Illinois, Illinois-Chicago, Illinois State, Marquette, Michigan, host Michigan State, Milwaukee, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Oakland, Ohio State, Valparaiso, Wisconsin, and Youngstown State. For more information on the event, visit MSUSpartans.com.

NATIONALLY KNOWN
The ITA Midwest Region features several highly-ranked teams, individuals, and doubles teams:
» Seven teams were ranked in the national top 75 at the end of the 2023 season, including Michigan (6), Ohio State (10), Wisconsin (22), Notre Dame (28), Illinois (34), Northwestern (63), and Toledo (71).
» Fourteen players are ranked in the ITA Preseason Singles National Top 125, including three players ranked in the top 25.
» Eight doubles teams also are ranked in ITA Preseason National Rankings, including four in the top 25 and two in the top 10.

LAST TIME: 2022 ITA MIDWEST REGIONAL
The Eagles competed at the 2022 edition of the ITA Midwest Regional Championships that were hosted in Ann Arbor, Mich., by the University of Michigan, Oct. 20-26, 2022.
» Prerna Vichare was the lone Eagle to play in the main draw where she fell in the opening round. Sabina Brichackova, Vidisha Reddy, and Regina Mendez all competed in the qualifying draw, but each fell in the first round of competition.
» Eastern placed two teams in the doubles main draw with the duos of Brichackova/Vichare and Reddy/Mendez both falling in the first round.

LAST TIME: 2023 REDBIRD INVITATIONAL
EMU competed in the Redbird Invitational, Sept. 29-Oct. 1, which was hosted by Illinois State in Normal, Ill.
» Freshman Ksyusha Saenko opened her collegiate career posting a 3-0 singles record to capture the title in Flight #3. She dropped one set in the opening round before downing her semifinal and final opponents in straight sets.
›› Linda Eloundou also captured a singles title as she out-dueled teammate Vidisha Reddy for the title in Flight #6. Eloundou and Reddy played a three-set match with Eloundou winning, 6-7 (8), 6-2, 10-8, for the title.
›› Eloundou was a two-time winner on the weekend as she and teammate Regina Mendez combined to win both of their matches to take the doubles crown in Flight #4. The pair bested two duos from St. Thomas (Minnesota) to win their title.
›› Along with Reddy, two other Eagles fell in the finals of their respective flights to take runner-up honors in the event, including Sabina Brichackova in Flight #5 and Mendez in Flight #7.
›› As a team, the Eagles posted a record of 19-14 on the weekend, including a 15-7 mark in singles play. Overall, Eastern opened with a 10-2 record on the first day of play, including a 7-1 mark in singles action. Eloundou led the way on the weekend as she was a perfect 5-0 in her matches, including 3-0 in singles and 2-0 in doubles.

ON THE HORIZON
Eastern returns to action next week when it travels to Cleveland, Ohio, to take part in the Viking Invitational, Oct. 20-22. The event, hosted by Cleveland State University, will be held at the Medical Mutual Tennis Pavilion on the CSU campus.

FOLLOW US
For all things EMU Tennis, be sure to check out the team's social media accounts, including EMUEaglesTennis on X and EMU_Tennis on Instagram.

WELCOME ABOARD
Eastern Michigan is guided by Ryan Kucera, who took the reigns as the program's head coach Aug. 9. The 11th head coach in EMU history, Kucera came to Ypsilanti after one season leading Milwaukee, in which the Panthers advanced to the semifinals of the 2023 Horizon League Tournament. Prior to that, he spent two seasons at Minnesota State-Mankato where his second season saw the team reach the second round of the conference tournament. Kucera is a graduate of Grand View (Iowa) where he was a student-athlete from 2017-20 after one season at Luther College.

SHVED: RETURNING ALL-CONFERENCE PLAYER
Daniella Shved was named a First Team All-Mid-American Conference selection, the league office announced April 28, 2022. Shved was one of just six student-athletes to be named on the first team and was the only underclassman to be represented on the list. Shved, who joined the Eagles prior to the 2023 spring campaign, is the 14th All-MAC first team selection in program history, and is the first for the Eagles since Ani Gogvadze (2014-18) in 2018. Additionally, Shved became the first "true" freshman to earn first team accolades in program history. One of the most dominant players in the league in 2022, Shved finished her spring with a team-best 12-2 mark in singles play. Her total wins (12), and win percentage (86%) were both the best among all Eagles in 2023.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Sabina Brichackova

Linda Eloundou

Regina Mendez Carreño

Andrea Quiroz

Vidisha Reddy

Kseniia Saenko

Daniella Shved

Prerna Vichare

Eastern Michigan Athletics