ITA Midwest Regional Awaits Tennis in Illinois

FALL TOURNAMENT #4 - ITA MIDWEST REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
Date	Thursday-Tuesday, Oct. 16-21, 2025 \| 9 a.m. CT daily
Venue	Atkins Tennis Center \| Urbana, Ill.
Preview Info	EMU Notes (pdf)
Live	Brackets: Singles - Doubles \| Watch \| Tourney Home
Social Media	X: @EMUEaglesTennis \| Instagram: @EMU_Tennis

URBANA, Ill. (EMUEagles.com) -- The Eastern Michigan University tennis team is set to compete in the 2025 ITA Midwest Regional Championship, Oct. 16-21, at the Atkins Tennis Center in Urbana, Ill., where the Eagles will be one of 23 institutions represented in annual event, this year hosted by the University of Illinois. One of five Mid-American Conference programs in the field, the Eagles will have players in the qualifying round and main draw of the singles tournament along with three teams in the doubles competition that will be utilized to not only crown regional champions, but also earn berths into the NCAA Championships, Nov. 11-23, in Orlando. Action gets underway each day at 9 a.m. CT (10 a.m. ET).

ON THE COURTS FOR EASTERN
Here are the Eagles that could compete in the 2025 ITA Midwest Regional Championships:
Singles • Main Draw
» Lara Diaz Zayas (So.) • Competed at the MAC Individual Fall Championships
Singles • Qualifying Rounds
» Regina Mendez Carreno (Sr.) • Went 2-1 in the Wolverine Invitational last week
» Sabrina Tolstova (Fr.) • Looking for her first collegiate singles victory this weekend
» Cylova Zuleyka Hukmasabiyya (Fr.) • Returning to action after last playing at the Block E Invite
» Matilde Parreira (Fr.) • Added as an alternate for the qualifying round
Doubles • Main Draw
» Diaz Zayas / Zuleyka Hukmasabiyya • Went 1-2 at season-opening Block E Invitational
» Pehal Kharadkar / Mendez Carreno • Pairing together for the third consecutive fall tournament
» Parreira / Tolstova • Went 1-2 at the Wolverine Invitational last weekend

FIRST SERVES
» Eastern will have at least one player in the main draw of singles with anywhere between three and five players (depending upon acceptance of alternates) in the qualifying rounds battling for spots in the main draw. Additionally, all three doubles pairs are in the main draw that begins play Oct. 17.
» The Eagles opened their 2025 fall slate three weeks ago when they hosted the Block E Invitational (Sept. 19-20) at the Chippewa Club. Both Matilde Parreira and Cylova Zuleyka Hukmasabiyya posted 3-0 records to win their respective singles groups.
» The 2025-26 Eastern Michigan roster features eight players from eight countries and four continents. Included on the roster are four returning Eagles in Iva Daneva, Lara Diaz Zayas, Regina Mendez Carreño, and Kseniia Saenko, and four newcomers in Pehal Kharadkar, Matilde Parreira, Sabrina Tolstova, and Cylova Zuleyka Hukmasabiyya.
» With the four freshmen included, the EMU roster boasts players from eight countries, including Argentina, India, Indonesia, Mexico, North Macedonia, Portugal, Russia, and Ukraine. All told, the Eagles are represented on four continents, including North America, South America, Europe, and Asia.
» The Eagles are experiencing a youth movement as the eight-player roster includes four freshmen, two sophomores, one junior, and one senior.
» Ryan Kucera returns for his third season as the head coach and will look to guide the team to the MAC Tournament for the second time. He has guided the team to back-to-back 12-win seasons for the first time since the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons when Tim Gray led the team to consecutive 16-win campaigns.

EVENT INFO: FOLLOW ALONG
Illinois will stream matches live on the Playsight website (link) with live match scores available (starting Saturday, Oct. 18) on IonCourt (link). Results and updated brackets will be available throughout the tournament on the ITA Tournament Page (link).

EVENT INFO: THE FORMAT
Each ITA regional competition will feature singles and doubles competitions with the finalists of singles and the winning doubles teams each earning berths into the NCAA Championships in November. Action gets underway Oct. 16 with qualifying rounds of singles play where two wins will earn those individuals a spot in the main draw that begins play Oct. 17. Doubles action also gets underway Oct. 17 as both main draws will start in the Round of 64 with six wins needed to claim the tournament title (R64, R32, R16, quarterfinals, semifinals, and final). Action is scheduled to start each day at 9 a.m. CT (10 a.m. ET) with doubles play leading things off.

EVENT INFO: THE TEAMS
The ITA Midwest Region features players from 23 institutions, including five from the Mid-American Conference in EMU, Bowling Green, Northern Illinois, Toledo, and Western Michigan. The remaining schools in the field include Chicago State, Cleveland State, DePaul, Eastern Illinois, host Illinois, UIC, Illinois State, Marquette, Michigan, Michigan State, Milwaukee, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Oakland, Ohio State, Valparaiso, Wisconsin, and Youngstown State.

NATIONALLY KNOWN
According to the Aug. 26 release of the ITA preseason rankings, the Midwest region features 10 singles players in the national top 125, including four of the top 11 players, and seven of the top 90 doubles pairs. Individually, the ranked singles players include No. 5 Luciana Perry (Ohio State), No. 8 Maria Sholokhova (Wisconsin), No. 10 Piper Charney (Michigan), No. 11 Teah Chavez (Ohio State), No. 26 Lily Jones (Michigan), No. 31 Emily Sartz-Lunde (Michigan), No. 44 Akari Matsuno (Notre Dame), No. 60 Nao Nishino (Ohio State), Audrey Spencer (Ohio State), and No. 107 Reese Miller (Michigan). In doubles, the seven ranked teams include No. 14 Jessica Bernales/Lily Jones (Michigan), No. 29 Teah Chavez/Luciana Perry (Ohio State), No. 39 Maria Sholokhova/Lucie Urbanova (Wisconsin), No. 50 Piper Charney/Emily Sartz-Lunde (Michigan), No. 57 Rylie Hanford/Akari Matsuno (Notre Dame), No. 63 Nao Nishino/Audrey Spencer (Ohio State), and No. 84 Bianca Molnar/Nohan Pozder (Notre Dame).

REVIEW: 2024 ITA MIDWEST REGION
The 2024 edition of the ITA Midwest Regional Championship was held in Columbus, Ohio, at the Ty Tucker Tennis Center on the Ohio State campus where Daniella Shved advanced to the Round of 32, marking the first Eagle to advance that far since 2015 when Klara Supejova reached the Round of 16. Sabina Brichackova and Iva Daneva both went 1-1 in the qualifying rounds, missing out on the main draw by one win each. The duo then combined to compete in doubles and went 1-1, marking the second consecutive year Brichackova had won a doubles match at the ITA event.

RECAP: WOLVERINE INVITE
Singles: Regina Mendez Carreno led the way for the Eagles as she posted a 2-1 record, including wins over competitors from Iowa and Ohio State, at the Wolverine Invitational in Ann Arbor, Oct. 10-12. She was joined by Matilde Parreira, who was 1-2 on the weekend with her win also coming against a player from Iowa.

Doubles: In doubles play, the team of Parreira and Sabrina Tolstova went 1-2 on the weekend and nearly captured two wins as they fell, 7-6(1), in their opener. Mendez Carreno joined with Pehal Kharadkar but were unable to secure a victory against three tough opponents that represented Northwestern, Michigan State, and Miami (Fla.).

FIRST WINS
All four newcomers to the program competed at the Block E Invitational (Sept. 19-20) at the Chippewa Club with each recording the first wins in their collegiate careers. Both Matilde Parreira and Cylova Zuleyka Hukmasabiyya collected four wins on opening weekend as they both posted perfect 3-0 records in singles action while adding one win in doubles play. Additionally, Pehal Kharadkar captured her first collegiate win in singles play while Sabrina Tolstova earned her first victory in a doubles match with Perreira as her partner.

STRAIGHT TO THE POINTS
Not only did Matilde Parreira and Cylova Zuleyka Hukmasabiyya post undefeated records in singles action, but both did also so without dropping a set. Perreira led the way by losing just 14 games in the six sets she played while Zuleyka Hukmasabiyya surrendered only 19 with two of her matches coming against MAC foes (Bowling Green and Toledo).

ON THE HORIZON
The final fall tournament of 2025 awaits the Eagles as they will travel to Des Moines, Iowa, for the Drake Invitational, Oct. 31-Nov. 1, hosted by Drake University. The event will be a homecoming of sorts for Ryan Kucera, who began his coaching career as the tennis professional at the Des Moines Golf and Country Club while also serving as an off-season coach for both West Des Moines Valley and Urbandale high schools.

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

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Sabina Brichackova

Iva Daneva

Lara Diaz Zayas

Pehal Kharadkar

Matilde Parreira

Kseniia Saenko

Daniella Shved

Sabrina Tolstova

Cylova Zuleyka Hukmasabiyya

Eastern Michigan Athletics