ACU set to host top players in ITA regional

Players in tournament aiming for berth in national tournament

ABILENE -- The top men's and women's players in the NCAA Division II Central Region will descend on Abilene this weekend to play in the ITA Central Region Championship tournament, trying to win a spot at the national tournament in Florida.

The tournament -- hosted by ACU -- will begin Thursday andconclude Saturday with all matches being played at either ACU's Eager Tennis Center or at the Rose Park Tennis Center.  The first two rounds of both singles and doubles will be played Thursday with third round and quarterfinal action in singles will be played Friday, while third round and semifinal action in doubleswill be played Friday.  Singlessemifinals and championship matches are set for Saturday, while the doubles finals will also be played Saturday.

The winners in men's and women's singles and doubles brackets will advance to the play in the ITA (Intercollegiate Tennis Association) Small College National Championship Tournament, Oct. 13-16, in Fort Walton Beach, Fla.

The ACU women's team performed well last weekend at the UTEP Miner Invitational in El Paso as the Wildcats played in their second tournament of the fall season.  After the loss of three key seniors from last year's team, ACU head coach Hutton Jones has been anxious to see how his new-look lineup would fare against tough competition.

The Wildcats played head-to-head against four NCAA Division Iteams and Lee College, the No. 2 junior college team in the nation last season.  Jones has to be happy with what he saw over the weekend after his women's team split six singles matches against New Mexico State,won four of six singles matches against Northern Arizona, won five of six singles matches and all three doubles matches against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, won two doubles matches against UTEP, and won four singles matches and one doubles match against Lee College.

Meagan Brown and Lana Pavlin each played No. 1 singles ACU, which is trying to replace Summer Beesley, Ashley Hawk-Caperton and Rachel Taylor, three seniors who led ACU to 30 wins last spring.

"I was really happy with the way our older girls -- Meagan, Lana and Holly Lindloff -- stepped into new spots in the order," Jones said.  "We had a little bit of trouble finishing out some matches, but as for the team as a whole, I was really pleased.  I saw a big difference from the first day to the third day as far as our girls getting comfortable with their roles and spots in the lineup."

The ACU men's tennis team was also in action at the New Mexico State Aggie Invitational in Las Cruces, N.M., and while the Wildcats didn't win any of the brackets they were in, Jones was pleased with the effort of his veteran-laden unit.

ACU's No. 1 doubles tandem of Casper Steenkamp and George Carstens reached the No. 1 doubles final where they lost 8-6 to Andre Begeman and Anibal Aranda of the College of Santa Fe, the 2005 NAIA national champion.

Steenkamp, who will play No. 1 singles for the Wildcats in the spring and is the 2004 ITA Central Region champion in singles, beat Aranda in the first round of singles play before losing to New Mexico's Graeme Kassautzki, 6-1, 6-3, in the second round.

Steenkamp, though, reached the final of the consolation bracket where he was to have played Carstens for the consolation title.  That match, however, was not played, giving both players 4-1 singles records in the tournament.

"We had some good wins," Jones said.  "There's no better way to prepare ourselves for this weekend's tournament and for the upcoming spring season than by playing against good competition this fall."