Four Pirates to Compete at USTA/ITA Regional Championship

Oct. 16, 2013

2013 USTA/ITA Selections

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - Fresh off securing quarterfinal berths in seven different flights of competition at last weekend's USTA Women's College Invitational, the Seton Hall tennis team will be back in action on Thursday as four Pirates earned selections to the USTA/ Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Regional Championship that will be hosted by Harvard over six consecutive days beginning October 17.

Senior and regional championship veteran Chloe Sher (Tin Shui Wai, Hong Kong) received a singles bid for the fourth-straight year while sophomore and first-year team member Hannah Liljekvist (Djursholm, Sweden) received a spot in the qualifying draw where she will kick off the competition with a matchup against Nadia Smergut of Stony Brook.

Qualifying features a single draw of 32. A singles player must win two matches to stay alive and move into the main draw. Eight spots in the singles main draw are reserved for qualifiers.

Sher has recorded at least one singles win in two of her first three trips to the regional championship and is coming off back-to-back tournaments in which she advanced in the main draw. Liljekvist delivered perhaps the most impressive singles performance for The Hall this fall with four wins in a row to reach the final of the top singles bracket at the West Point Invitational and as a freshman at St. Mary's (CA) last season, she reached the round-of-16 in doubles at the 2012 Northwest regional.

The team also scored two entries in doubles as the team's top two pairs of Sher and Rocio Portela (Demetrio Vega Baja, Puerto Rico) and Liljekvist and junior Madison Shoemaker (Halfmoon Bay, British Columbia) were selected to compete as well.

Seton Hall's two senior captains have been a fixture at the regional championship since teaming up as freshmen three years ago and at the Pirates' last two tournaments, have displayed the form that helped them become the winningest duo in school history. Sher and Portela advanced to the quarterfinals at the West Point Invitational and recorded two more wins at last weekend's USTA event to earn a spot in the semifinals.

Since uniting at the beginning of the fall, Liljekvist and Shoemaker have been on a tear, emerging as a force that could dramatically impact dual matches in the spring. At their first tournament as a tandem, the two combined to post wins in their opening three matches, becoming the first Seton Hall pair to reach the A final at the Quinnipiac Invitational. They are 3-2 in their last five matches overall, going undefeated in consolation play at both West Point at the USTA Invitational.

At the USTA/ITA Regional Championship, a total of 103 players from 33 schools are competing for an automatic entry into the 2013 USTA/ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships on Nov. 7-10 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y. Singles and doubles champions will receive a berth.

Here's a look at the full schedule of competition

Schedule

Thursday, Oct. 17

5:00 p.m.

Qualifying Round of 32

Friday, Oct. 18