COLUMBIA, MO. – Mizzou Tennis continues its fall schedule with the USTA/ITA Central Region Championships in Minneapolis, Minn. The event will take place from Oct. 13-17 at the Baseline Tennis Center at the University of Minnesota. The tournament features student-athletes from 23 different schools playing for a chance to claim a spot in the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships in Flushing, N.Y.
Eight Tigers are competing in this year's tournament. Each one will participate in both singles and doubles play. Three different Tigers received seeds for the singles bracket. Freshman Tate Schroeder (Centennial, Colo.) and junior Brianna Lashway (Bradenton, Fla.) both received No. 17 seeds while senior Bea Machado Santos (Lisbon, Portugal) will play as the No. 2 seed. Additionally, the doubles team of Machado Santos and junior Amina Ismail (Maineville, Ohio) enter the tournament as the No. 9 seed.
Mizzou hopes for continued contributions from its talented freshman class. Schroeder, along with Mackenzy Middlebrooks (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.), combined for a 3-3 record in singles matches at the Mizzou Invite in their first taste of collegiate tennis. Middlebrooks added to her singles success by winning a doubles match with Lashway as her partner.
Lashway also has momentum carrying her into this event after winning five total matches at the Mizzou Invite. The junior won all three of her singles matches at the No. 2 position and went a remarkable 4-0 in tiebreaker sets.
Machado Santos enters the tournament ranked No. 36 in the preseason ITA singles rankings. She will look for her 100th career win. She recently competed at the ITA All-American Championships in Los Angeles and dropped two tightly contested matches.
Singles play will begin Thursday, Oct. 13 at 8 a.m. and doubles play will start Friday, Oct. 14 at 8 a.m. Follow @MizzouTennis on Twitter for up to date information on the USTA/ITA Central Regional Championships throughout the weekend.