Four BYUH women are DII All-America
Advertiser Staff
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Five Brigham Young-Hawai'i players and Hawai'i Pacific freshman Zora Vlkova earned places on the 2009 Intercollegiate Tennis Association Division II All-America teams.
The All-America list was released in conjunction with the season-ending Campbell/ITA national rankings, which had the Seasider women third, HPU 12th and University of Hawai'i-Hilo 37th. The Sea Warrior men finished sixth, with BYU-Hawai'i 28th and Hilo 29th.
Elwen Li, third in the final singles ranking, led a foursome of Seasider women on the All-America team. She was joined by Yuan Jia, fourth in the final ranking, Jenny Chin (19) and Wen-Lin Wang (21). HPU's Vlkova finished the year 15th.
BYUH's Rong Ma, 11th in the men's ranking, also earned All-America honors.
Players had to be in the Top 20 in the final singles ranking or Top 10 in doubles to be considered for ITA All-America honors.
Hawai'i Pacific's Nina Mihova was 36th in the final singles ranking and Hilo's Eve Castaing 47th. Li and Jia were second in doubles, with Ching and Wang 10th, and HPU's Ingrid Cseh and Vlkova 19th.
In the final men's rankings, HPU's Nikola Petrov (22), Henrik Bode (28) and Daniel Luedi (38), and Hilo's Laurent Colombo (34) finished in the Top 40 in singles. In doubles, BYU-Hawai'i's Ma and Agnel Peter were 21st and HPU's Luedi and Nikola Petrov 22nd.
In other tennis news:
The ITA held its second annual Men's Kick-Off Weekend Draft, with teams bidding for which route they will take to the 2010 Indoor Championships. Teams that finished the season ranked in the top 60 qualify for Kick-Off Weekend, Jan. 30 and 31 at 15 host sites.
UH gained a bid to the UCLA regional, where they will join the Bruins, Pepperdine and South Florida. The No. 4 seed Rainbows will face top-seeded UCLA in a rematch of the 2009 NCAA second-round match won by the Bruins.
The 15 schools that win both regional matches advance to the main draw of the ITA National Team Indoor Championships, hosted by the University of Virginia, Feb. 12 to 15.
Last season, the 'Bows participated in the Blue Gray Classic invitational, won their first NCAA Tournament match and second straight WAC Championship and finished with the highest ranking in history.
The section believes the agreement will allow it to expand its mission of "promoting and developing the growth of tennis while creating an additional income source in tennis club and facility management." It plans to use the facility primarily for teaching adults and juniors. It will also be a home for Cardio Tennis and team tennis.
There will be a grand opening Sunday, from 2 to 5 p.m. The free event will feature Cardio Tennis, games, drills, QuickStart Tennis for those 10 and under, a Fast Serve Contest and Beat the Pro. There will also be prizes and free food.
For more information, contact HPS at 955-6696 or http://www.hawaii.usta.com.
