Four members of the University of Florida women’s tennis team will be among players from eight schools competing in Las Vegas beginning Friday at the ninth annual Freeman Memorial Championships at the Fertitta Tennis Complex on the UNLV campus.
Alex Cercone (Seminole, Fla.), Lauren Embree (Marco Island, Fla.), Olivia Janowicz (Palm Bay, Fla.) and Joanna Mather (Duluth, Ga.) will join the singles and doubles draws featuring other athletes from No. 1 Stanford, No. 5 UCLA, No. 6 North Carolina, No. 19 USC, No. 20 Arizona State as well as the University of Oregon and host UNLV, ranked No. 29.
An impressive field of no less than 15 ranked individuals and six of the sport’s ranked doubles teams are scheduled to compete, including UF’s Janowicz, who is ranked No. 22 nationally in singles, Cercone, who is ranked No. 28 and Mather, ranked No. 30.
Janowicz, who is the No. 2 seed in the 32-player Flight 1 Singles draw, plays Arizona State’s Sianna Simmons in the first round. Cercone drew Stanford’s Natalie Dillon on day one, while Mather will face UCLA’s Maya Johansson in her opening match.
In doubles, Cercone and Janowicz will team and play Stanford’s Kristie Ahn and Nicole Gibbs, while Embree and Mather face Oregon’s 59th-ranked duo of Particia Skowronski and Pavlina Smatova.
Action begins with doubles each day at 10 a.m. PST on Friday and Saturday with the finals scheduled for Sunday. Admission to all matches is free. The event features two flights each of both singles and doubles along with consolation rounds.
