The George Mason women's tennis team will begin play at the 2016 Atlantic 10 Championship as the 10th seed and will face No. 7 George Washington in the first round, held from April 21-24 at the outdoor Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, Ohio.
The Patriots (7-15, 2-6 A-10)open Championship play will the local rival in the final session on Thursday, beginning at 3:00 pm. The winner of match will take on No. 2 Massachusetts on Friday at 10:00 a.m.
Senior Brittany Pilkington was the top singles player for the Patriots this season, playing 23 matches during the dual season, earning a 7-16 record. Senior Esu Erdenebat earned a team-high 11 wins (11-11) on the season, playing the majority of matches from the Nos. 4 to 6 spots. Junior Olivia Lacy-Thompson finished with a winning 9-8 record from the singles positions No. 4-6.
Freshman Sydney Green played all 22 of her dual matches from the No. 2 position, finishing with a 9-13 mark. In 11 matches from the No. 3 position, Marijke Boers finished 3-8. Junior Scarlett Walston won seven of her 12 matches, 5-5 from the No. 6 position.
In doubles, the top team of Pilkington and Sydney Green finished 6-13. Mason had seven different doubles combinations at No. 2 and at No. 3 this season. The team of Erdenebat and Lacy-Thompson accounted for a 4-3 overall record, 3-2 from No. 2. Freshman Nicole Haigwood and Morgan Yang were undefeated from No. 3 with five wins.
The Colonials recently defeated Mason, 7-0, in a Revolutionary Rivalry match. A year ago, GW downed Mason, 4-1, in first round action at the A-10 Championship before falling to eventual champion VCU in quarterfinal play.
GW (6-13, 2-4, A-10) is led by sophomore Teodora Radosavljevic, who entered the spring with a No. 18 Atlantic Region singles ranking, has competed at the top spot for the Colonials for the second-straight season and earned a No. 111 solo rank on Feb. 10. Radosavljevic owns a 9-9 mark in dual match play and is tied with classmate Marie-Louise Decamps (9-3) for a team-high in wins.
Every match of the championship will be played at Lindner Family Tennis Center, which has hosted the A-10 Men's or Women's Championships the last four years (2012- 2015). Admission will be free for the A-10 Championship.
The semifinals will be played Saturday at 10:00 am and 1:30 pm and the championship finale is Sunday at 10:00 am. The winner of the 2016 Atlantic 10 Women's Tennis Championship receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
