First Day Of ITA Mountain Region Completed At CU Courts
July 09, 2016 | Tennis
BOULDER – The University of Colorado welcomed the ITA Summer Circuit to the South Campus Tennis Complex as the first day of the weekend tournament kicked off Saturday morning and played late into the evening.
The circuit drew men and women from all over the Mountain Region, ranging from NCAA Division I to high school. Locally, collegiate student-athletes from the University of Denver, Colorado State, Northern Colorado, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Colorado Christian and Colorado Mesa joined the host Buffaloes.
"It was a great day of tennis today with a lot of matches played," said Colorado head coach Nicole Kenneally. "Tomorrow we will follow it up with all the semis and the finals in all draws. Consolation singles begin at 8:30 a.m. with the main draw beginning at 9 a.m."
The day saw all of the singles and doubles for both the men and women started, and consolation brackets established for Sunday. Overall across the courts there were 23 matches played by the women in both singles and doubles. For the men, there were 33 matches contested between singles and doubles.
The women's single draw saw one high school competitor, Kristina Fernandez, make it to Sunday's semifinals. On the men's singles side, number-one seeded Casey Ross and Ethan Hillis, both high school athletes, made it to the semifinals. Du freshman Ignatius Castellino also advanced to the semifinals to be played on Sunday.
The ITA Summer Circuit has been contested since 1993, and is considered an "open" event by the NCAA, allowing for all the different levels to compete with each other. The Mountain Region is one of nine other regional circuits (Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, Midwest, Central, Texas, Northern California and Southern California), consisting of four consecutive open tournaments all played in July that lead up to the ITA/USTA National Summer Championships in Bloomington, Ind., in August.
Consolation singles will begin Sunday at 8:30 a.m. and the main draw will begin at 9 a.m. Admission is free at the South Campus Tennis Complex.