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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The Flagler College women's tennis team is going dancing on its court for the first time in the Division II era.
On Tuesday night, the NCAA announced the regional brackets with the Saints earning the No. 2 seed and hosting the second side of the NCAA Southeast Region at the Flagler Tennis Courts in St. Augustine, beginning Friday at 10 a.m.
The Saints will host three other teams with their first matchup being versus seventh-seeded the University of Mount Olive; meanwhile, third-seeded Queens University of Charlotte (N.C.) will face sixth-seeded Newberry College Friday at 2 p.m. The winner of those matches will square off the following day, Saturday at 1 p.m., for a spot in the 2022 NCAA Division II Women's Tennis Championships in Altamonte Springs, Florida, May 17-21.
A year after earning its highest seed in program history but not being able to host after predetermined sites were selected due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Flagler gets its long-awaited gift to host this year's regional. The Saints come into the NCAA Southeast Regional with sights set on the national championship site after falling a match shy a season ago, losing to foe and this season's No. 1 seed, Columbus State University in the Sweet 16 match, 4-3.
The Cougars sit atop the southeast region as sharers of the Peach Belt Conference regular-season title winners, alongside Flagler and the University of North Georgia after the Saints defeated the UNG while CSU fell to them. As mentioned in the NCAA Selection Show, fifth-ranked
Luisa Hrda is the player to watch for Flagler as she is the PBC Player of the Year and was named the PBC Tournament MVP in both singles and doubles. Hrda and
Eden Schlagenhauf, ranked eighth in doubles, have been the anchor of the Saints' reliable doubles' team and look to continue that success into the regional. Additionally, No. 4 singles player
Anika Nissen has been the glue for Flagler as she's won 19 straight matches and hasn't lost since the season-opening match at top-ranked, undefeated Barry University in February.
The Cougars have three players ranked: No. 9 Neila Trkilja, No. 52 Mariana Ramirez, and No. 61 Valentina Abirle while Ramirez and Abirle are ranked No. 12 in doubles. The Cougars ousted the Saints in the PBC Tournament to reclaim the title after Flagler won it a year ago for its first-ever PBC championship of any kind.
| SOUTHEAST REGION |
RECORD |
| 1. Columbus St. — AQ |
18-3 |
| 2. Flagler |
16-7 |
| 3. Queens (NC) — AQ |
16-1 |
| 4. North Georgia |
14-4 |
| 5. Wingate |
16-7 |
| 6. Newberry |
23-4 |
| 7. Mount Olive — AQ |
17-2 |
The Cougars' bracket includes, PBC foe fourth-seeded UNG and fifth-seeded Wingate University, who will face off Friday, with the winner facing CSU, who receives a bye, on Saturday. The Saints defeated the Bulldogs 6-1 on March 9, while dismantling North Georgia twice this season, winning 4-3 both times.
WU has two ranked players in No. 35 Camilla Ciaccia and No. 59 Elena Gunfaus, while one in doubles with fifth-ranked Ciaccia and Suzuka Sambyakugari. The Bulldogs will vie with North Georgia's lineup that is full of ranked players. In singles, they have No. 39 Johanna Lippert, No. 60 Anna Markartova, No. 75 Vaishali Jorge, while doubles feature No. 14 Lippert/Jorge and No. 35 Jorge/ Claudelle Labonte-Frey.
Queens, the South Atlantic Conference champion, will face the team the Royals defeated in the SAC Tournament championship in Newberry as each come in with highly-touted players. The Royals from Queens are armed with No. 46 Jill Morse, No. 74 Vikorija Veselinova, and No. 16 Morse/Marie Bertan Del Balanda; meanwhile, the Wolves are led by No. 18 Zulay Castaneda, No. 70 Nastassia Chamoun, No. 30 Chamoun/ Lucy Spice, and No. 34 Judit Gonzalez/Amy Griffiths.
The Saints or Trojans will face off with one of those two teams as Mount Olive, who has a ranked duo in No. 41 Alexandra Dodashev Enbert/ Carolina Lime De Oliviera, earned an automatic bid after winning the Conference Carolinas. Flagler has not faced a SAC or CC school this season as it aims to face both and leave victorious in its first host D2 opportunity in program history.
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