ORLANDO – The UCF women’s tennis team, fresh off a fifth-consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, is set to kick off its fall tournament slate at the College Ranked Spotlight. The tournament is hosted by NC State and will run from Thursday, Sept. 21 to Sunday, Sept. 24 in Cary, N.C. Anique Kattenberg, Grace Levelston and Noel Saidenova will represent the Black and Gold at the tournament.
Seventeen total schools will travel to the Cary Tennis Park, all of which finished dual matches play ranked in the top 40 last season. Familiar foes from the 2023 season, including Arizona State, Auburn, Georgia Tech, Miami, NC State, Tennessee and Virginia, will be accompanied by new opponents in Duke, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio State, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Texas A&M and USC. 13 of the singles players in the field were ranked in the ITA preseason top 25, including five in the top 10.
Doubles action kicks off Thursday night, with Saidenova and Levelston pairing up to take on Kari Miller and Piper Charney from Michigan at 5:45 p.m. at the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center at NC State. Singles action will get underway on Friday morning at 9 a.m. at the Cary Tennis Park. Another round of singles play will take place on Saturday and the championship rounds of doubles and singles will be held on Sunday.
The tournament will be held in a compass draw fashion, with two singles draws with 32 players in each. Every player will play a total of five singles matches. Main draw singles will be played best of three sets, with round-robin and backdraw matches using a 10-point super tiebreak in lieu of a third set.
SCHEDULE OF PLAY
Thursday – 5:45 p.m.
Noel Saidenova/Grace Levelston (UCF) vs. Kari Miller/Piper Charney (MICH)
Friday – 9 a.m.
Round-Robin Group
Anique Kattenberg (UCF) vs. Maddy Zampardo (NCSU)
Friday – 11 a.m.
A-2 Draw
Noel Saidenova (UCF) vs. Gina Dittmann (NCSU)
Grace Levelston (UCF) vs. #5-8 Shahar Biran (SCAR)
Friday – 2 p.m.
Round-Robin Group
Anique Kattenberg (UCF) vs. Xinyi Nong (MIA)