Three players will represent Tennessee Tech this weekend at the 2010 USTA/ITA Ohio Valley Regional Championships. The completely indoor tournament will consist of top players from around the region, as well as some of the best players in collegiate rankings. The University of Kentucky will be hosting the event, with matches being played at Kentucky's Hilary J. Boone Tennis Complex as well as the Lexington Tennis Club.
Tournament play opens on Thursday, Oct. 21 with the qualifying singles and doubles round. Players competing in the qualifying round must win two matches to advance to the main draw on Friday afternoon. There will be 11 open singles and 6 open doubles spots in the main draw for players who qualify.
Justin Kirstein will work for one of the singles spots Thursday at 9 a.m as he takes on Lenz Theodor from Butler.
Josh Girling and Alex Chen will be competing in the 64-player main draw of singles Friday afternoon. Both players will contend against players from Kentucky at 3 p.m.
Girling, who has a 10-3 singles record this fall, will have an opportunity to earn a spot on the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) national rankings list this weekend. Girling has already had a win this season over 72-ranked Christian Blocker from Miami, and will need to capture another win over a ranked player to earn his way into the rankings list. He has an opportunity in his first round as he takes on 32-ranked Alex Musialek.
Chen will also have a challenging match in his first round, playing the 15-seed, Anthony Rossi.
Chen will also be joining Kirstein to compete in the doubles main draw Friday at 10 a.m. The pair has played in two tournaments together this fall, Elon Invitational and UNCG Invitational, where they have earned a 3-2 record so far. Chen and Kirstein will team up against Taylor Patrick and Bryant Swartz from University of Tennessee.
Ball State, Butler, Dayton, Eastern Kentucky, East Tennessee State, IUPUI, Kentucky, Libscomb, Louisville, Memphis, Purdue, Tennessee, UT-Chatanooga, Vanderbilt, Wright State and Xavier are among the schools competing this weekend. The tournament begins Thursday, Oct. 21 and will continue until Sunday, Oct. 25.
