WOMEN'S TENNIS

Geneva, NY----The Sage Colleges women's tennis team will be represented at the 2009 Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Northeast Regional Championship this weekend, Sept. 25-27, on the campus of William Smith College at the HWS Tennis Center and Bristol Field House. Action will begin at 9 a.m. on Friday. This is one of 64 regional championships being played across the country over the last three weeks of September.

Taking to the courts for Sage will be senior Christina Gray (Clifton Park, NY/Shenendehowa) and sophomore Erica Fitzgerald (Queensbury, NY/Queensbury).

Nineteen colleges will join the host Heron tennis team from William Smith College in competition; SUNY Brockport, SUNY Cortland, Drew, Hamilton, Hunter, Ithaca, Moravian, Mount Saint Mary, Nazareth, The College of New Jersey, SUNY New Paltz, New York University, Richard Stockton, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, The Sage Colleges, St. John Fisher, St. Lawrence, and Skidmore.

Jackie Shtemberg from TCNJ is the top seed in the singles bracket, while Rochester's Frances Tseng and Lia Weiner are No. 2 and No. 3, respectively. In the doubles bracket, Shtemberg makes up one-half of the top-seeded team, along with fellow Lion Felice Trinh. Tseng and Weiner combine as the second-seeded team, and Skidmore's Danika Robison and Nataly Mendoza hold the third seed.

The Wilson/ITA Northeast Women's Championships at William Smith will feature the top NCAA Division III schools in the region. The singles and doubles champions from this weekend's tournament advance to the ITA National Small College Championships at the Copeland-Cox Tennis Center in Mobile, Ala., Oct. 15-18.

The ITA National Small College Championships began in 1986 and annually crowns men's and women's singles and doubles national champions in each of the ITA's four small college divisions (NCAA Divisions II and III, NAIA and Junior/Community College). These championships are the only national tournaments for singles and doubles at the NCAA Division II and NAIA level, and the only tournaments that combine the levels of Junior/Community Colleges (NJCAA and the California schools). Participants are determined through these Wilson/ITA Regional Championships, which serve as qualifying tournaments. The national champions from each division square off in the "Super Bowl" of Small College Tennis to determine the overall ITA National Small College Champions (who then earn berths into the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, a Division I event, in November).

As the governing body of collegiate tennis the ITA promotes both the athletic and academic achievements of the collegiate tennis community. The ITA, which was founded in 1956 and is based in Skillman, N.J., administers numerous regional and national championships, the ITA Collegiate Summer Circuit presented by the USTA, and the Campbell/ITA Rankings for men's and women's tennis at the NCAA Divisions I, II and III, NAIA and Junior/Community College. The ITA also has a comprehensive awards program for players and coaches to honor excellence in academics, leadership and sportsmanship. The official ITA website is www.itatennis.com.

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