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CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Lee University's Ashleigh Simes has earned an at-large bid to compete at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Cup, formerly known as the Small College Nationals, in Rome, Georgia. She is one of 16 players selected for the Division II bracket. The tournament will be held October 10-13 at the Rome Tennis Center at Berry College.
Simes is scheduled to take on Anamarija Kovacevic of University of Findlay in the Round of 16 at 9 a.m. on Thursday, October 10. A win would put her in the Quarterfinal against either Amaia Balaguer Brau of Slippery Rock University or No. 2 seed Amelija Supulniece of Academy of Art University at 9 a.m. Friday.
Participants are made up of champion or runner-up from each of the eight regional championships who receive automatic bids. A minimum of eight at-large selections come from the regional finalists and quarterfinalists with four selections from each group. Simes qualified after reaching the semifinals of the South Regional Championships. Kovacevic reached the final of the Midwest Regional.
The senior was one of four Lee representatives at the 2024 ITA Division II Men's and Women's South Regional Championships that was held September 29-October 2 in Lakeland, Florida. Joining Simes were Maria Penalver Aguilo, Filipe Krohn and Wihan van der Merwe.
Simes began the regional with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Olivia Pezo of Valdosta State and moved to the Round of 16 with a 6-3, 3-6, 10-8 defeat of Nova Southeastern University's Ita Habekovic on the first day of competition. She then took down Florida Southern's Olivia Bryant 6-4 and 6-1 to open the second day. Simes led Barry's Viktoriia Dema 6-5, 5-1 when Dema retired due to injury.
In the semifinal round on October 1, Simes fell to Barry's Alina Michalitsch 6-2, 6-3 to end her run.
Simes teamed with Penaliver Aguilo in the doubles competition. The duo lost 8-6 to Nova Southeastern's Isabella Ciancaglini and Kristyna Hrancova in their first match to send them to the consolation bracket. Simes and Penalver Aguilo beat Kamilya Shailina and Catherine Rabatin of Saint Leo 8-4 before bowing out with an 8-7 (7-3) loss to Amina Taibi and Jiayi Liu of Rollins.
Penalver Aguilo went 2-1 in singles competition. She beat Luzia Obermeier of Saint Leo 2-6, 6-3, 10-7 and led Lynn's Kristin Younes 6-4, 3-1 before Younes retired due to injury. In the Round of 16, Penalver Aguilo fell to Barry's Angela Leweurs 6-0, 6-2.
On the men's side, van der Merwe and Krohn went 1-1 as a team in doubles competition. They beat Albin Ekenros and Bernardo Costa of West Florida 8-7 (7-2) before losing a close battle 8-6 to Saint Leo's Luis Iriarte and Eduardo Cohen.
In singles action, van der Merwe took down Embry-Riddle's Joshua Nuyts 6-4, 6-2 Sunday morning. He was then outlasted in three sets by Dominik Vonbank of AUM. They split the first two sets with van der Merwe winning the first 6-1 and Vonbank claiming the second 6-1. In the third set, Vonbank held on for a 10-6 tiebreaker win.
Krohn beat West Florida's Alex Maulouet by matching set scores of 6-4 in his first match on Sunday. Krohn then was defeated by Jerome Iaconi of Valdosta State 6-1, 6-2.
