POMONA – Cal State L.A.’s women’s tennis team will have seven players competing in the 2009 Wilson/ITA West Region Championship that begins on Thursday at Cal Poly Pomona. The tournament will run through Saturday.
The Golden Eagles will have a new No. 1 player, senior Dora Kiss, and a new coach, Cari Groce, who was previously the head coach at Division I schools Texas Tech, Washington State and Tulsa.
Kiss, from Budapest, Hungary, will be joined by five other singles players from Cal State L.A. Seniors Lana Lamesic and Adriana Espinosa, junior Linda Majzlikova and sophomore Marine Prevost return from last year’s squad, while freshman Jillian Sangria from Long Beach Wilson High School will be making her Golden Eagle debut.
The doubles teams of Prevost and Joyce Librando, Lamesic and Espinosa and Kiss and Majzlikova will also be competing in the event.
The singles and doubles champions from the regional event will earn an automatic berth to the 2009 ITA National Small College Championships, which is scheduled for Oct. 15-18 and is being hosted by the Mobile Tennis Center in Mobile, Ala. The winner of the Small College Championships will receive wild-cards into the Division I ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships on Nov. 5-8 at Yale University.
BYU-Hawaii has the top two seeded singles players in Yuan Jia and Jenny Chin. That duo is also seeded first in the doubles.
Players from Cal State L.A., Cal Poly Pomona, UC San Diego, Cal State Stanislaus, Sonoma State, Cal State San Bernardino, Grand Canyon, Dixie State, Dominican and BYU-Hawaii are scheduled to compete.
2009 West Region Wilson/ITA Small College Regional Championships
At Cal Poly Pomona
Thursday’s Cal State L.A. matches
Singles
Round of 64
Dora Kiss (CSULA), bye
Lana Lamesic (CSULA) vs. Haley Hickcock (Sonoma State), 8 a.m.
Linda Majzlikova (CSULA) vs. Janay Palicte (CS San Bernardino), 8 a.m.
Adriana Espinosa (CSULA) vs. Caroline Huston (Sonoma State), 9:30 a.m.
Jillian Sangria (CSULA) vs. Lexy Harrington (CS Stanislaus), 9:30 a.m.
Marine Prevost (CSULA) vs. Heather Cotter (Cal State Stanislaus), 9:30 a.m.
Round of 32
Dora Kiss (CSULA) vs. Hayes-Prudhomme winner, 12:30 p.m.
Doubles
Joyce Librando/Marine Prevost (CSULA) vs. Tan/Trong (Dominican), 4 p.m.
Lana Lamesic/Adriana Espinosa (CSULA) vs. Brady/Kaiden (CPP), 4 p.m.
Dora Kiss/Linda Majzlikova (CSULA) vs. Knopf/Jackson (Grand Canyon), 4 p.m.