The Wichita State women's tennis team gets its toughest test of the fall season with the ITA Central Region Championships, Thursday through Monday at Oklahoma State University's Greenwood Tennis Complex.
 
"We're just trying to keep building and getting better," head coach Colin Foster said. "This is our biggest and most competitive event of the fall season. You get every Division I team from the region, spanning Oklahoma and Arkansas all the way up to the Northern border."
 
149 entries will represent 23 schools in singles and doubles competition. Champions of both draws, as well as the singles runner-up, earn automatic berths to next month's fall championships in San Diego, Calif.
 
Jessica Anzo, Natsumi Kurahashi, Lingwei Kong and Kristina Kudryavtseva have already claimed spots in the 96-player singles main draw, which gets underway Friday.
 
Teammates Clara Whitaker and Harriet Hamilton will look to join them but must first conquer two rounds of Thursday qualifying matches.
 
Foster is looking to build some doubles chemistry by sticking with the same pairings he used last weekend at the SMU Invitational (Kong/Kurahashi, Anzo/Kudryavtseva and Hamilton/Whitaker). All three duos will play first round matches on Thursday evening.
 
"We liked the teams that played in Dallas. We thought we saw improvements on all three courts," Foster noted. "It doesn't mean those teams are set in stone, but at least to get some continuity in back-to-back weeks will help them as doubles players in possible future pairings."
 
Draws will be posted soon on the tournament central page. OSU will provide live streaming throughout the weekend at okstate.com and live scoring of matches from the round of 16 and beyond.