Women's Tennis To Open Season Over Weekend At Memphis Invite
Sep 16, 2010 | Women's Tennis
Sept. 16, 2010
Tulane Quotes Previewing The Memphis Collegiate Invitational
Video Interview With Coach Sisk
Video Interview With Sophomore H.Elster
NEW ORLEANS - The Tulane University women's tennis team will open the 2010-11 season over the weekend when the Green Wave travels to Tennessee to participate in the 2010 String 'n Swing Memphis Collegiate Invitational at The Racquet Club of Memphis.
Entering their third season back on the court following a layoff caused by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on Aug. 29, 2005, the Wave return all 10 letterwinners from a year ago, including first-team All-Conference USA honoree Mariam Kurdadze and second-team all-conference recipient Emma Levy. Tulane went 13-9 in dual-match action a year ago and will no doubt look to build some momentum for the upcoming spring season with a solid start to the fall schedule.
"We had an amazing year last year," Tulane head women's tennis coach Terri Sisk said. "We were 13-9, we got up to No. 67 in the national rankings and obviously we're looking to build on that for this upcoming year. We're returning all 10 players and we've added a talented freshman from California, Katherine Cecil.
"We're looking to maybe start a little fresh this year...This field that we're going to in Memphis has a lot of talented teams in it. We're just looking forward to continue to show everyone that we're getting better."
Joining Tulane for the Memphis Collegiate Invitational are host Memphis and C-USA rival Tulsa along with Abilene Christian, Arkansas State, Austin Peay State, Belmont, Evansville, Georgia State, Lipscomb, Ole Miss and Tennessee-Martin.
The tournament begins on Friday and eight of the 11 Green Wave student-athletes on the roster are slated to take the court to open the season. Kuradze - a junior from Tbilisi, Republic of Georgai, who was named the No. 107 singles player in the country in the preseason Intercollegiate Tennis Association's Preseason Poll - will take on Emily Crowe of Arkansas State in the Outside A1 Singles Flight while Levy - a sophomore from Princeton Junction, N.J. - will battle Tennessee-Martin's Jodie Tiley in the Outside A2 Singles Flight.
In other outdoor action, juniors Elizabeth Hamlin and Lindsay Dvorak will square off against Elizabeth Keevil of Lipscomb in A3 Singles and Katerina Gresova of Georgia State in A4 Singles, respectively, while sophomore Hila Elster will face UT-Martin's Anna Marie Herbold in the A5 Singles Flight. Cecil (B1 Singles vs. Lipscomb's Alyssa Bellini), juniors sophomore Marcela Fonseca (B2 Singles vs. Evansville's Pin Sorensen), Jessica Lange (B3 Singles vs. Arkansas State's Tina Odjanic) and Sharon Siegel (B4 Singles vs. Madelyn Walker), meanwhile, will all play indoor singles.
The Green Wave tandem of Kurdadze and Levy will battle Evansville's Kate Chybowksi and Theadora Kotsiou in the Outdoor A1 Doubles flight while the duo of Hamlin and Elster will face Lipscomb's Kara Jackson and Danielle Hanson in Outdoor B1 Doubles. Indoor action includes Cecil and Dvorak taking on Arkansas State's Jenny Herring and Menna Kamal in B1 Doubles while Lange and Siegel will square off against Abilene Christian's Walker and Natalie Friend in B2 Doubles.
"We spent these past three weeks working on a lot of things - a lot of basics and a lot of technical issues," Sisk said. "We really try to not (focus on) that `we have to win' and `we have to do this.' We just want to see that they understand what we're talking about in practice and that they're actually working on the technical things that we might have changed. That's our goal.
"I've told the girls it's not about winning, it's about doing things right. The wins will take care of themselves. We're just looking for a lot of good attitude, a lot of great effort, a lot of team spirit and making sure we understand what's going on inside of a point."
Day one of the String 'n Swing Memphis Collegiate Invitational will begin with the opening round of doubles at 8 a.m. and the second round at 9:30 a.m. Singles are slated to begin at 12:30 p.m. Saturday's festivities start at 9 a.m. with the second round of singles and the final doubles matches are slated to get under way at 12:30 p.m. The Memphis Collegiate Invitational will conclude on Sunday with final singles matches at 9 a.m.
Following the Memphis Collegiate Invitational, the Green Wave return to action on Friday, Sept. 24, when they begin play in the three-day Roberta Alison Fall Classic in Tuscaloosa, Ala. The Alison Classic is the second of five team tournaments Tulane is slated to participate in during the fall season as the Wave will also play in the Rice Classic from Oct. 8-10 in Houston, the ITA Regional Championship from Oct. 22-24 in Birmingham, Ala., and the Lakewood Ranch Clay Court Classic on Nov. 12-14 in Tampa, Fla.
Players Mentioned
