University of Tennessee Athletics
Pair To Compete At National Indoors
November 01, 2011 | Women's Tennis
Nov. 1, 2011
KNOXVILLE - Tennessee women's tennis senior Natalie Pluskota and junior Kata Szekely will compete in the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships (Nov. 3-6), beginning Thursday in New York at the USTA Billy Jean King National Tennis Center.
The duo earned its way into the doubles main draw after winning five consecutive matches to capture the Ohio Valley Regional (Oct. 15-18), capped off with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Tiffany Welcher and Alyssa Hibberd of Memphis.
"Everyone in the draw is good because everyone is a winner of a regional just like us," said co-head coach Sonia Hahn-Patrick, who finished as a doubles finalist at the event in 1988 as a member of Kentucky's squad. "They just have to come ready and prepared from the start. It's not a tournament they can work their way into. I think they're aware of it and they're ready to play."
Pluskota, meanwhile, also received an at-large selection into the singles main draw. The 29th-ranked Pluskota will open the event in the round of 32 on Thursday at 3 p.m. ET against ninth-ranked Chelsey Gullickson (Georgia), who owns the tournament's third seed.
Pluskota is one-for-one in matchups against top-10 opponents this season, defeating No. 6 Zoe De Bruycker (UNC) 6-2, 6-3, on Sept. 24 at the Furman Fall Classic.
In the first round of doubles Thursday at 9 a.m. ET, Pluskota and Szekely will face Veronica Popovici and Simona Synkova of Wyoming, who earned their way to New York by winning the Mountain Regional. Pluskota and Szekely are undefeated together with a 5-0 record.
Paired with Caitlyn Whoriskey, Pluskota finished as a finalist at the 2009 National Indoors.
"The biggest thing is you just have to stay relaxed," Hahn-Patrick said. "It's real easy to get caught up in the atmosphere because we're playing where the US Open is. For them, they just have to remember the diameter of the court is the same here as it is up there and just focus on playing."
Fans can follow all the action via a live blog on utladyvols.com and on Twitter by following @LadyVol_Tennis.
