Smith and Velaga Prepare for Northeast Super Regional This Weekend

PHILADELPHIA – Gavriella Smith and Esha Velaga will represent the University of Pennsylvania women's tennis team at the Northeast Super Regional in West Point starting on Friday.

Smith and Velaga earned automatic bids to the Super Regional back on Sept. 27 after their stellar performances during the fall season. Velaga is having a stellar start to her Penn career with 8-1 doubles and 9-1 singles records. In her collegiate debut at the Penn Invitational, she went 4-0 against Temple, Penn State, and LIU. Smith opened her 2023 fall campaign going 4-0, just like Velaga at the Penn Invite. The junior won both of the Quakers' Power 5 victories during the Cissie Leary Invite, stealing a 6-0, 6-2 singles victory over Anastasia Sysoeva and 6-4 doubles win with Liza Tkachenko against Sysoeva and Polina Kozyreva of Syracuse.

The last time Penn went to Army for the Super Regional was during the 2019-20 season, where Iuliia Bryzgalova '22 and Marija Curnic '21 captured the doubles title of the regional. Junior Smith and freshman Velaga look to have just as much of an impact this year in West Point.

Velaga will take on Kate Kim (Harvard) at 10 a.m. while Smith battles Maiko Uchijima (Temple) at 11:30 a.m. If Velaga and Smith win their matches, Velaga could face either Maria Aguiar (Boston College) or Maia Sung (Princeton) at 1 p.m., and Smith would see Sophia Wang (Columbia) or Victoria Carlsten (Boston College) at 2:30 p.m.

If either of the Quakers advance to the quarterfinals, they will fight for a spot in the semifinals at 10 a.m. on Saturday. The semifinals and final round of the Northeast Super Regional will be played on Sunday starting at 10 a.m.

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Players Mentioned

Gavriella Smith: 5' 6"; Junior

Esha Velaga: Freshman

Liza Tkachenko: Freshman

Players Mentioned

Gavriella Smith
: 5' 6"; Junior

Esha Velaga
: Freshman

Liza Tkachenko
: Freshman