ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFKnights.com) – The UCF women's tennis team will send four participants to the ITA National Fall Championships in Newport Beach, Calif. from Nov. 6-10. The tournament will include college tennis' elite players from across the country and is by far the most competitive tournament of the fall season.
Valeriya Zeleva, Rebeka Stolmar and Marie Mattel qualified for both singles and doubles play while Ksenia Kuznetsova qualified for just the doubles segment. UCF's top two doubles tandems qualified for the National Fall Championships by reaching the semifinals of the ITA All-American Championships back in early October.
In the All-American Championships, No. 7 Kuznetsova and Zeleva strung together three consecutive wins over ranked competition, including two wins over top 15 doubles tandems. They would fall to Tennessee's No. 24 pair in the semifinals of the competition. Kuznetsova and Zeleva are tabbed as the No. 3 seed in the doubles draw of the National Fall Championships. They are scheduled to take on Vanderbilt's Georgia Drummy and Christina Rosca on Wednesday at 8 p.m. EST.
No. 31 Stolmar and Mattel have been wildly successful this fall, posting a record of 11-1 as a duo. They won the ITA Southeast Regionals doubles title and reached the semifinals at the All-American Championships. The Knight pair fought their way through the qualifying draw to make the main draw of All-Americans, where they made a run for the title. Stolmar and Mattel are pegged as the No. 6 seed for the National Fall Championships. They'll face Oklahoma State's Dariya Detkovskaya and Bunyawi Thamchaiwat on Wednesday at 9 p.m. EST. The UCF duo faced this same Oklahoma State tandem already this fall and defeated them 8-0.
Zeleva, Stolmar and Mattel will represent the Knights in the singles bracket at the ITA National Fall Championships.
No. 29 Zeleva holds a 7-4 record entering the National Fall Championships, with two of those wins against top 50 competition. Zeleva will face the tournament's No. 15 seed, South Carolina's No. 49 Mia Horvit, on Wednesday at 1 p.m. EST.
No. 98 Stolmar comes into the tournament with a singles record of 11-5. Her shining achievement of the fall is winning the All-American Championships consolation singles final where she topped Furman's No. 46 Katarina Kozarov in straight sets. Including Kozarov, Stolmar has taken down five ranked opponents. She is set to square off with Oklahoma State's Dariya Detkovskaya on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. EST.
Mattel has followed up her American Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year nod nicely in the fall of her sophomore season. She has compiled a singles record of 10-4 with five wins over ranked opposition. Mattel will meet Cameron Morra of North Carolina in the first round on Wednesday at 11 a.m. EST. Morra is the nation's No. 12 singles player and the No. 12 seed in the singles draw.
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