The University of Wisconsin women’s tennis squad prepares to send four ladies to the ITA All-American Championship in Los Angeles starting this weekend. The tournament goes through Oct. 10. Seniors Katie McGaffian and Lindsey Martin; sophomores Caitlin Burke and Madison Sellers; and freshmen Chelsea Nusslock all earned nods to compete in the tournament this year.
Martin, Burke, Sellers and Nusslock all managed to find a singles spot in the pre-qualifying field of 128 at the tournament. McGaffigan earned herself a slot in the qualifying round, where she will play one of the 16 finalists from the pre-qualifying round later in the week.
The Badgers will also send two pairs of doubles teams to the tournament. The doubles squad of Nusslock and Burke will start in the pre-qualifying round, while the McGaffigan/Martin team will start in the qualifying round.
Last year’s squad managed to send only two singles players into the tournament, McGaffigan in the pre-qualifying round and the graduated Shana McElroy in the qualifying. The pair also comprised the only UW pair to compete in the 2003 ITA All-Americans.
While the increase in Badger participation may be attributed to the expansion of the tournament this year, head coach Patti Henderson is still enthusiastic about the showing of her team.
“It’s fantastic. It’s probably been the first time in awhile that we’ve had a singles player and a doubles team in the qualifying round,” Henderson said.
The ITA All-American Championship is the premier event of the short, fall campaign. The best players from across the nation come to compete every year in preparation for the season. According to Henderson, the All-American Championship is a good way of gauging where a player stands against the nation’s best.
“The main draw of the All-American tournament is tougher than the NCAA tournament, because the draw is only 32 people,” Henderson said. “So the qualifying is also only a draw of 32, so you’re looking at, just in the main draw and the qualifying draw of the singles tournament, the top 50 or 40 players in the nation.”
In the pre-qualifying singles, Caitlin Burke, ranked No. 11 in the pre-qualifying field, will face Clara Peterson of Sacramento State in her first match. Nusslock faces Clelia Deltour of Duke; Martin meets Tray Lin of UCLA; and Sellers draws Jessica Simosa of Kansas State to round out the Wisconsin opening matches in the pre-qualifying draws.
For pre-qualifying doubles, Burke and Nusslock open the tournament against Nika Koukhartchouk and Mimi Renaudin of Ole Miss.
Qualifying round participants, will find out their match-ups prior to the beginning of the qualifying round.
Pre-qualifying play opens at 8:30am on Saturday and runs through Monday. The qualifying round will run from Oct. 5-6, with the Main Draw running from the Thursday Oct. 7 and ending on Sunday Oct. 10.
