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Epstein, Morton To Begin Competition At Riviera/ITA All-American Championship
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Oct. 2, 2015
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Maci Epstein (Winter Park, Fla.) and Skylar Morton (Bethesda, Md.), a pair of seniors on the Virginia women’s tennis team, head west this weekend to compete in the Riviera/ITA All-America Championships.
The duo is set to compete in the pre-qualifying rounds of the annual event held at the Riviera Tennis Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif. The pre-qualifying rounds begin on Saturday, Oct. 3, and run through Sunday, Oct. 4.
Epstein will face Ashvarya Shrivastava of New Mexico State, while Morton will face Gabriella Porubin of Wichita State. Porubin is tied for 125 in the Oracle/ITA Rankings.
The pre-qualifying round consists of 64 singles players and 20 doubles teams. Each player or doubles pair must win three rounds in order to advance to the qualifying draw. A total of eight singles players and four doubles duos move on to qualifying from pre-qualifying play.
The qualifying round of play is scheduled for Oct. 6-7 with 56 players in the singles draw in addition to the eight players who will advance from the pre-qualifying round. Senior Stephanie Nauta (Galveston, Texas) is competing in the singles portion of competition and the pairing of Nauta and senior Danielle Collins (St. Petersburg, Fla.) is competing in the doubles draw. There are 28 teams already selected for the qualifying round in addition to the four teams that advance out of the pre-qualifying round.
Just as with pre-qualifying, a singles player or doubles tandem must win three consecutive matches to stay alive and move into the main draw. Eight spots in the singles main draw are reserved for qualifiers, while the doubles main draw will feature four teams from qualifying.
The main draw is set to run Oct. 8-11 and the Cavaliers have Collins and senior Julia Elbaba (Oyster Bay, N.Y.) competing in the event.