Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
Middle Tennessee
ITA Regional Championships
Women's Tennis Prepared for ITA Ohio Valley Regionals
10/7/2026 1:13:00 PM | Women's Tennis
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – The Middle Tennessee women's tennis team will travel to Mason, Ohio to compete at the 2026 Ohio Valley Regionals from Oct. 8-13, hosted by both the University of Cincinnati and Miami (OH) at the Lindner Family Tennis Center.
The Blue Raiders are sending Sadbaroy Kholdarova, Lena Peyer, Maria Palacios, Sthefany Lima, Zhanel Rustemova, Victoria Matasova and Sara Conde to the tournament, which acts as their first chance to qualify for the NCAA Individual Championship. In order to earn an automatic bid, a Middle Tennessee player would need to finish as part of the top doubles team or as one of the top two singles players in the event.
Middle Tennessee joins eight other schools from the Volunteer State to feature at the event, including Austin Peay, Belmont, Lipscomb, ETSU, Tennessee Tech, UT-Chattanooga, Vanderbilt and the University of Tennessee.
Last October, Lima, Peyer and Kholdarova all represented Middle Tennessee at the 2025 Ohio Valley Regional Championships in Knoxville, Tenn. Lima and former Blue Raider Rutuja Chaphalkar earned a doubles victory, as well as Peyer and Kholdarova.
The tournament begins with a 64-player singles qualifying round on Thursday, with the top 16 players advancing to the main draw of 64 individuals on Friday. At the same time, 64 teams will begin competition in the doubles draw.
Six of the seven Blue Raiders competing will feature in Thursday's qualifying singles draw, hoping to join Matasova and the rest of the field in the main singles draw on Friday.
At 9 a.m. on Thursday, Kholdarova will face off against Serafima Bobrovnikova from Lipscomb, while Peyer finds Zara Burns of UT-Chattanooga on the other side of the court.
At 10 a.m., Palacios and Lima both face off against opposition hailing from Murray State, with Yu Kikawa and Aada Inna, respectively.
In the 11:30 a.m. timeslot, Rustemova will compete against Hsin Li Lin from Indiana University while Conde plays against Sophie Parr from Butler.
On Friday, Matasova will face off against Liam Oved of UT-Chattanooga, with a time yet to be scheduled.
In doubles, Conde and Lima are paired up, facing off against Peyton Duckett and Pauline Bruns of Austin Peay.
Matasova and Rustemova have Purdue's Reese Frank and Kathryn Wilson as their opponents, while Peyer and Palacios will play against Mia Yamakita and Erin Pierce from Vanderbilt.
The draws and schedule for the tournament can be followed here.
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