INDIANA, Pa. – The IUP women's tennis team will serve as a host for the 2015 NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional Championships this weekend, the fifth consecutive season the Crimson Hawks have entered the postseason as one of the top two teams in the region.
IUP earned the second seed in the Atlantic and join California (Pa.) as the two regional hosts this Saturday and Sunday. The Crimson Hawks will play host to No. 3 seed Mercyhurst, No. 6 seed West Liberty, and No. 7 seed Shaw, with matches to be played at IUP's Maple Street Courts.
The winners of each regional site will advance to the 2015 NCAA Division II Championships in Surprise, Ariz. The top 16 teams in the nation will compete at the Surprise Tennis & Racquet Complex on May 13-16.
The Crimson Hawks have advanced to four straight NCAA Championships dating back to 2011 and have a streak of eight straight regional victories.
The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) runners up feature two of the top five players in the region in
Tanya Timko (Cannonsburg, PA/Chartiers-Houston) and
Jarka Petercakova (Bratislava, Slovakia/Sport Gymnasium). Timko is the Crimson Hawks' top singles player and boasts a record of 22-9 this season. Petercakova will go at two for IUP and has a record of 16-5, including two wins over nationally-ranked opponents.
Timko and Petercakova will also team up as IUP's top doubles pairing where they have a record of 17-5 this spring and are the second ranked team in the Atlantic.
Other regionally-ranked players for the Crimson Hawks are
Raquel Gonzalez (San Sebastian, Spain/Colegio Sagrado Corazon) (12th),
Sophie Butland (Taunton, Somerset U.K./Bishop Fox's Community School) (13th) and
Luise Von Agris (Castrop-Rauxel Germany/Adalbet-Stifter-Gymnasium) (17th). Gonzalez will play at three this weekend while Butland is IUP's fourth player and Von Agris plays at five.
The second doubles team of Von Agris and
Rachel Wood (Nottingham, U.K./West Bridgrord) is also ranked, coming in at No. 6 in the region.
Mercyhurst, West Liberty and Shaw have a combined four regionally ranked singles players. Mercyhurst features Soaia Gomez (third) and Adrianna Jeffress (ninth); West Liberty has Lauren Howard (seventh); and Shaw has Ana Ruzir (15th).
Action this weekend is set to get underway at 11 a.m. on Saturday with IUP facing Shaw. Mercyhurst and West Liberty will follow, with the winners of each matchup set to face each other for the regional championship on Sunday at 12 p.m.
For up-to-date game information, visit www.IUPAthletics.com and follow IUP on Twitter @IUPCrimsonHawk.
