MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Georgina Sellyn will advance to the 2013 National Indoor Championships as the winner of the USTA/ITA Ohio Valley Regional. The sophomore defeated No. 26 Nadia Ravita, 6-2, 6-3, to cap off a perfect weekend at The Racquet Club of Memphis.
Sellyn is the first Commodore since Jackie Wu, in 2011, to advance to the National Indoor Championships, via the regional tournament.
“I am so proud of the way Georgina played today,” said VU assistant coach Aleke Tsoubanos. “The score was not indicative to how close the match really was, a lot of the games went to deuce and there were a lot of long points, both Georgina and Ravita competed so hard.”
Sellyn upset the top-seeded singles player in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3. The Glasgow, Scotland native jumped out to early leads in both sets and was able to hang on to win the match and cap off a 6-0 weekend.
“I’m just so happy right now,” said Sellyn. “It was a really tough match. I went in with the mind set of just playing another match and taking it one point at a time, I didn’t let the fact that it was the final match get to me and it paid off.”
The sophomore who has gained the reputation of being an outdoor grinder by her coaches, never expected to make as big of an impact indoors as she did.
“The hard indoor courts are not my favorite surface,” Sellyn said. “Going in I just wanted to get some experience playing some really good competition and it ended up turning out great.”
Sellyn will now advance to the 2013 USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y., beginning on November 7. She moves on as one of 12 automatic qualifiers coming out of the regional tournaments.
“She earned every bit of this,” Tsoubanos said. “I’m so excited that Vanderbilt will be represented at nationals.”
The Vanderbilt women’s tennis team would also like to extend their thanks to Janet and George Leavell, the parents of Maggie Leavell, for hosting the team and providing such great hospitality.
