Freshman Nicole Bartnik is the top overall seed in the Wilson/ITA Regional Championships, the final and most important tournament of the fall for the Lions. The tournament is scheduled to begin on Friday and last until Tuesday, when the winners of the singles and doubles draws will be crowned.
Both singles finalists and the doubles champions will advance to play in the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, one of the nation’s three most prestigious college tennis tournaments. Schools from across the Northeast will be there, including all of the Ivy League. The singles draw features the top 128 singles players, and the doubles draw has the best 64 doubles teams from the region.
Bartnik is seeded ahead of more experienced players—including Molly Scott from Dartmouth and Hilary Bartlett from Princeton, both all-Ivy first team members last spring—due to her results from her fall season. Bartnik made the finals of the Cissie Leary Invitational, her first tournament, losing to Yevgenia Stupak from East Tennessee State University.
Bartnik had the misfortune of playing Stupak again in the Riviera/ITA All-American Championships, losing to her in the first round. She regrouped, however, to win the USTA Collegiate Invitational “A” singles draw.
Bartnik is undefeated this fall against all competitors from the Northeast. Her junior ranking of No. 5 in the nation and No. 86 in the world helped her earn the top seed as well.
Joining Bartnik in the main draw for singles are junior Natasha Makarova, senior Carling Donovan, sophomore Eliza Matache, and freshman Chelsea Davis. Makarova has had mixed results this fall, making it to the second round of the Cissie Leary Invitational and falling in the first round of the “B” singles draw at the USTA Collegiate Invitational.
Donovan won her first-round match at the Collegiate Invitational in the “D” singles draw, but fell to the No. 2 seed in the next round in a tight match. Matache lost in the first round of the Cissie Leary Invitational, but advanced to the quarterfinals of the “C” singles draw of the Collegiate Invitational.
Davis will be making her first appearance in the Regional Championships, coming off a first-round win in the Collegiate Invitational in the “F” singles draw over Michelle Weerasinghe from Seton Hall.
While the Lions do not have anyone entered in the qualifying singles draw, they do have three doubles teams entered in the main doubles draw. Bartnik and Makarova will team up again after having success earlier in the season. The duo advanced to the semifinals of the Cissie Leary Invitational but lost in the first round of the pre-qualifying doubles at the Riviera/All-American Championships. They struggled at the USTA Collegiate Invitational, losing in the first round despite being the No. 4 seeds.
In addition, Donovan and Davis will be paired together, as will Matache and junior Natalia Christenson.
The champions will be crowned on Tuesday, with the singles finalists and doubles winners to play in the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships Nov. 5-8, hosted by Yale.
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