Tennis on Campus Section Championship

The madness of March will be in effect this weekend at the USTA Missouri Valley Tennis on Campus Section Championships in Des Moines.

Starting Saturday, 16 teams from across the five-state area will converge on Lifetime Fitness for the chance to advance to the USTA Tennis on Campus National Championships in March.

The tournament will feature singles, doubles and mixed doubles with the winning team moving on to represent the section at the Tennis on Campus National Championship, April 12-14 in Orlando, Florida.

Tennis on Campus is a USTA program that is designed to give college students an opportunity to keep their competitive spirits alive, stay in shape and meet fellow college students from around the country. The program is flexible, incorporating players of all ability levels and teams of all sizes in a fun, competitive environment outside of the Division I atmosphere.

Pool play will begin at 7:45 a.m. on Saturday and continue throughout the day. The top team in each pool will advance to the semifinals on Sunday.

Two-time defending champion Washington University-St. Louis returns this year, as does Iowa, which won the title in 2014 and 2015.

The pools are as follows:

Australian: Iowa State, Saint Louis University, Northern Iowa, Truman State

French: Washington University-Saint Louis, Missouri, Iowa State 'B', Oklahoma State

British: Iowa, Missouri S&T, Missouri State, SIU-Edwardsville

US: Kansas State, Nebraska, Tulsa, Drake

Also, as part of this year’s event, the USTA Missouri Valley is partnering with the American Cancer Society for the Serving Hope fundraiser.

Serving Hope, a pledge-based fundraiser empowering teams and individual athletes to make their mark against this disease. The fundraising will run through March 2nd.

Each team will select one male and one female to compete in the contest. Each participant will be allowed 60 seconds to attempt as many serves as they can.

All serves landing in the service box will count one point toward each player’s total. For more information on the fundraiser and to donate, click here. 

Follow the action all weekend on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.