SAN DIEGO, Calif. – University of Central Oklahoma star sister act Mae and Christine Canete continue their fall tennis season this weekend at the 2021 ITA National Fall Championships at Barnes Tennis Center.
The Canetes of Los Angeles, California won last month the ITA Cup Division II Doubles National Championship. A first for the Broncho tennis program. The duo then was picked to compete as an at-large selection to the next level of collegiate tennis championships.
The ITA's national fall championships are the season finale for all of college tennis, with 32 of the nation's top singles players and 32 of the nation's top doubles teams in both men's and women's tennis competing.
Mae and Christine are part of the 32 doubles teams. They drew Texas Regional finalists Alicia Herrero Linana and Mel Krywoj of Baylor, a duo given the seventh seed in the tournament. That match is scheduled for Thursday at 5:30 p.m. local time.
The Canetes are on the top half of the bracket that includes No. 1 seed Anna Brylin and Brooke Killingsworth of Wake Forest. Ole Miss, Indiana, Colorado State, USC, and Penn all have teams on the same side of the draw.
Mae Canete, a sophomore with a 35-1 career singles record, was named ITA Freshman of the Year last season and is off to a better start this fall. She put together an ITA Cup Singles National Championship runner-up finish last month while also winning the national title in doubles with her little sister.
The two have a 13-2 record together and have finished first, second, and third in three tournaments this fall. Their collegiate careers began a year apart but their on-court partnership began with a runner-up finish in Texas in September. A third-place showing in Texas later that month preceded the first ITA event – the Central Region Championships in Edmond.
Mae and Christine played against one another for the regional singles title before winning the regional doubles title. That sent both of them to DII nationals. Christine won her opener before being eliminated in the quarterfinal to the eventual national champion that topped Mae.
But the two didn't have that trouble in doubles play. And now, the first ever doubles national championship team from Central Oklahoma gets an opportunity at another one.
