Texas Tech Athletics
NCAA Individual Championships
Two Lady Raiders compete at NCAA Individuals
November 18, 2024 | Women's Tennis
LUBBOCK, Texas – The Texas Tech Lady Raiders are sending a doubles team to the NCAA Individual Championships in Waco, Texas taking place from Nov. 20-24. The Lady Raider pairing of Mariia Hlahola and Avelina Sayfetdinova will open the Round of 32 as the overall 3-seed in the tournament and will face No. 30-ranked duo of Martina Genis Salas and Annabelle Xu of Virginia beginning on Nov. 20.
This will mark back-to-back seasons Tech sent a doubles team to the NCAA Tournament as Sayfetdinova and Metka Komac paired up last year and advanced to the quarterfinals to become the first Doubles All-Americans in program history.
Last Monday afternoon, the NCAA released the 32 doubles teams that will compete in this year's tournament as well as the seeds for the main draw. Beginning in 2024-25, the NCAA Individual Championships were moved from the end of the spring season to the end of the fall season with four ways to qualify for the tournament. The first was to advance to the semifinals of the ITA All-American Championships, the second and third ways were to be a doubles finalist or win the third/fourth playoff match at both the ITA Conference Masters and the ITA Sectional tournaments. The final way to qualify – which is how the Lady Raiders did so – was to win the ITA Texas Regional Championships.
Forming a doubles partnership this fall for the first time, both Hlahola and Sayfetdinova began the season winning every single one of their matches together at the Furman Fall Classic, claiming the flight champion title in the process. Then, the Lady Raider tandem was back in action at the ITA Texas Regional tournament in mid-October, hoping to qualify for the NCAA Doubles Championships by winning title. And that's just what they did. Â They would win five-consecutive matches to claim the regional title and qualify for the NCAA Doubles Championships.
As announced by the NCAA, the Lady Raider pair will be the 3-seed in the NCAA Tournament, behind the 1-seeded UCLA team of Kimmi Hance and Elise Wagle and the 2-seeded NC State team of Broadfoot and Zampardo. The Lady Raiders have already earned wins against the 2-seeds and the 5-8 seeds in Pascual and Otway of TCU. Holding a perfect, 8-0 doubles record together, Hlahola and Sayfetdinova are set to begin play on Nov. 20 in Waco at a time still to be determined.
Live stats will be available here. A live stream can be found on Baylor's website as well as on ESPN+.
