Women's Tennis To Participate In ITA Southern Regional
Oct 22, 2009 | Women's Tennis
Oct. 22, 2009
Coach Sisk's Comments Entering The ITA Southern Regional
NEW ORLEANS - The Tulane University women's tennis team returns to fall action on Friday, Oct. 23, when the Green Wave open play in the 2009 ITA Southern Fall Regional at the Yarborough Tennis Center in Auburn, Ala.
A year after being accidentally left out of the ITA Regional due to a clerical error, the Green Wave will now have a second chance to make a first impression. Tulane one of 11 teams participating in the Southern Fall Regional, joining fellow Conference USA program UAB and host Auburn along with Alabama, Troy, LSU, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe, Mississippi, Mississippi State and Samford.
Day one on Friday will feature 32 singles matches and 16 doubles contests. The quarterfinals are slated for Saturday, semifinals for Sunday and finals for Monday. Play is scheduled to begin on Friday at 8 a.m. with doubles action, followed immediately by singles play.
"Obviously, we're really excited about being a part of the ITA Regional, especially after what happened last year," Tulane head women's tennis coach Terri Sisk said. "It was very disappointing last year because we were actually forgotten, but I understand that because it was our first year back.
"This year, we're very excited about going to Auburn, but we'll have our hands full with the draws. You've got a lot of the SEC programs in it and a lot of nationally-ranked programs. We're just real excited to come and compete and really see how we stack up against some of the elite programs in the country."
Six Tulane student-athletes will take the court on Friday: sophomores Lindsay Dvorak, Elizabeth Hamlin and Mariam Kurdadze and freshmen and Hila Elster, Emma Helistén and Emma Levy. Hamlin is slated to play Auburn's Jil Hastenrath, Dvorak will take on LSU's Nicole Kantor and Kurdadze squares off against UL-Lafayette's Briggitt Marcovich. Helistén will do battle with UL-Monroe's Lena Satge, Levy will take on Sloane Mathis of LSU and Elster - who defeated Kylie Adamek of LSU, 6-4, 6-1, in Thursday's pre-qualifiers - will play Stephanie Viera of Troy.
In doubles action, Dvorak and Helistén will play UAB's Giorgia Romeo and Brittany DeFelice, Kurdadze and Levy will play Troy's Viera and Emma Smith, and Elster and Hamlin will play UAB's Pino and Evelien Stijker.
"We've been playing a lot of singles and doubles matches so far - a lot of tie-breakers - just to prepare ourselves mentally to play this weekend," Sisk said. "They've improved so much from the first day of practice until now, especially in the little things. I feel like we constantly talk about little things, but the little things are what pay off. We're hitting bigger balls, we're doing a much better job of a higher first-serve percentage, and we're much more physically fit than we were in early September. It's actually kind of shocking to see some of the times the girls turn in during explosive foot-work drills that we have.
"Our doubles teams are coming together. We're still learning a little bit of strategy - what kind of balls to hit vs. when you hit them and those type of things - but we're improving daily and that's our goal. We want to have a purpose for every ball we'll hit and we'll let the outcome take care of itself. Right now, we're just worried about our performance goals and we're not worried with outcome."
Following the ITA Southern Regional, the Green Wave close out the fall portion of their 2009-10 schedule at Houston for the Cougar Fall Draw from Nov. 6-8.
Players Mentioned
