PROVO -- BYU's Jenny Miccoli and Anastasia Sourkova, the top doubles team in the region, will represent BYU, the Mountain West Conference and the NCAA Central-West Region at the 2006 ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Tennis Championships starting Thursday at Ohio State.
"I'm really excited," Miccoli said. "We played very well last week at the regional tournament and I want to see how well we can do at this one."
Miccoli and Sourkova's opponent in the first round of the tournament will be Ohio State's own Julie Blackmore and Caitlin O'Keefe. No matter what the competition, however, Miccoli and Sourkova said they are confident in their performance and ecstatic to be playing together.
"Communication is our best suit," Sourkova said. "I already know what Jenny's thinking before she says anything. It is so cool and fun to play with her because we've been playing together for the last three years and we really play well together."
Miccoli and Sourkova beat their own teammates Lauren Jones and Sofia Holden in the finals of the Wilson ITA Women's Central Regional Championship on October 21 to qualify for the national indoor tournament. Sourkova also barely missed an opportunity to play in the national singles tournament. She pulled out of the finals of the regional tournament, a match in which she was favored to win, in order to not play on Sunday.
The 2006 ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Tennis Championships feature a 32-player singles field and 16-team doubles field for men and women, including: champions from Wilson/ITA Regional Championships held across the country during October, the ITA National Small College champions, the winners of the Polo Ralph Lauren Men's All-American Tennis Championships and Riviera/ITA Women's All-American Championships presented by Fila and at-large and wild card selections made earlier in October by the ITA National Tournament Committee. Overall, more than 10,000 players from nearly 600 schools participate annually in the ITA Regional and National Intercollegiate Championships.
This tournament is the second of three national championship events during the 2006-07 collegiate tennis season. Two others are the ITA All-American Championships in October and the season-ending NCAA Championships in May. Miccoli and Sourkova will start their run at a national title in the first round of doubles play at 10 a.m. MST on Thursday at Ohio State. If they win their first round match, they will play in the quarterfinal round starting Friday at the same time.