April 30, 2009

DALLAS (SMU)-Freshmen Marta Lesniak and Aleksandra Malyarchikova were selected to the 2009 NCAA Individual Tennis Championships, where the top 64 singles players and 32 doubles teams will compete in the event, May 20-25, at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station, Texas, following the conclusion of the team championships. Texas A&M University will serve as the event host.

C-USA Freshman of the Year Marta Lesniak claimed the league's automatic bid into the singles championship. The highest ranked C-USA player at No. 59 in the latest ITA rankings, Lesniak has posted a 13-1 overall record at the top of the SMU lineup. The native of Poland was also named C-USA's Singles Player of the Championship.

Lesniak and partner Aleksandra Malyarschikova played at the top doubles spot for SMU once they both joined the lineup at the midpoint of the spring season and the pair claimed C-USA's automatic bid into the doubles championship. The pair, currently C-USA's top ranked doubles team at No. 32, went a perfect 13-0 this spring.

All matches will be the best of three sets. Regular scoring and a 12-point tiebreaker at six games all will be used for all matches.

Automatic qualification into the Division I singles championships was awarded to any conference with one or more eligible singles players ranked in the ITA Top 125 for eligible/entered singles players. For conferences with more than one singles player within the ITA Top 125 eligible/entered singles players, the subcommittee applied the NCAA selection criteria to determine which student-athlete is the automatic qualifier from those conferences. All singles players must have recorded a minimum of 13 completed singles matches in order to be selected as an automatic qualifier or an at-large selection.

Automatic qualification into the Division I doubles championships was awarded to any conference with one or more eligible doubles teams ranked in the ITA Top 60 for eligible/entered doubles teams. For conferences with more than one doubles team within the ITA Top 60 eligible/entered doubles teams, the subcommittee also applied the NCAA selection criteria to determine which doubles team is the automatic qualifier from those conferences. All doubles teams must have recorded a minimum of 10 completed doubles matches in order to be selected as an automatic qualifier or an at-large selection.

The pairings for the singles and doubles tournament will not be released until the team competition begins at the 2009 NCAA Championships.