MANHATTAN, Kan. The 2005 Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Summer Circuit, presented by the USTA, will be coming to Washburn Tennis Facility, July 16-19.

The ITA Collegiate Summer Circuit is made up of six regional circuits (East, Southeast, Midwest, Central, Southwest and West) for collegiate players (events are also open to junior players and the general public). Each region consists of four consecutive tournaments played during the month of July. The ITA Collegiate Summer Circuit began in 1993 and had a record 2,067 players participate in last year's events. All told, over 15,000 players have competed in circuit events since '93. Indiana University women’s coach Lin Loring came up with the concept to begin the circuit and serves as its overall director.

Each tournament on the circuit includes men's and women's singles and doubles.

The ITA National Summer Championships, presented by the USTA, are the pinnacle of the ITA Collegiate Summer Circuit. This year's tournament takes place Aug. 13-16 at Indiana University. Champions from this tournament gain wild cards into the Icy ITA Men's and Riviera/ITA Women's All-American Championships in October, the first national tournaments of the 2005-06 collegiate tennis season.

The latest news on this year's ITA Collegiate Summer Circuit can be found on the official ITA website is www.itatennis.com. For information on the ITA Summer Circuit event at Kansas State, contact head women’s tennis coach Steve Bietau at (785) 532-7198.