Tulane Travels to ITA Southern Regional
Oct 9, 2014 | Women's Tennis
Oct. 9, 2014
Regionals HQ | Sisk Interview | Katz Interview
NEW ORLEANS - The Tulane women's tennis team heads Northeast to Tuscaloosa for the 2014 USTA/ITA Southern Regional Championships hosted by the University of Alabama. Players from 19 schools will compete Oct. 10-13 to earn a berth to the National Indoor Championships in Flushing Meadows, New York.
"We don't have anything to lose," said Tulane head coach Terri Sisk . "Regionals is one of the bigger tournaments of the fall, so they realize if you do really well here you can make it to Nationals at the USTA Billie Jean King Center. We are going against probably even tougher competition than what was at Notre Dame, so we just have to go out there, focus on our task, really dig in on the things we've been working on, and continue to improve."
Regionals mark just the second fall tournament for the Green Wave, after competing at the Notre Dame Invitational, Sept. 26-28. Doubles team Ipek Birol and Nicky Stracar highlighted the event, posting a 3-1 record with victories over teams from Purdue, Notre Dame and Akron.
"Both Nicky and Ipek are amazing doubles players," added Sisk. "Putting them together works because they both have strengths that the other doesn't have. We are definitely keeping them together for Regionals after having such a great tournament at Notre Dame. They both understand the court very well and know when you can press and when you can't. I'm really excited to see what they can do with this level of competition."
Both Birol and senior Emily Dvorak recorded the best showings in singles with 2-1 marks. In addition, Meredith Maltby, Naz Karagoz, Kyla Klier and Jacqui Katz all picked up their first wins on the year.
"Since Notre Dame we've worked on constructing a lot of points better and also have worked on doubles," said Katz. "I think we'll have some tough matches, but some really good opportunities. If we just fight and give it our all, we'll have good outcomes."
The Southern Regional will be held at the Alabama Tennis Stadium and the Alabama Rec Courts with play commencing at 9 a.m. CT Friday with doubles action. The 19-team field will consist of: Alabama, Auburn, Jackson State, Jacksonville State, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe, LSU, Louisiana Tech, McNeese State, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Nicholls State, Northwestern State, Samford, South Alabama, Southern Miss, Troy, and UAB.
"Every time we take the court, the focus is to get better, and the girls have done a good job of that in the past couple of weeks," stated Sisk. "We took a look at what we needed to work on after the Notre Dame Invitational and discussed things that went well and how to capitalize on those."
The four-day event is free to all patrons, but if Green Wave fans decide to cheer on Tulane, they'll have to search for the color pink, the squad's new color for the month of October in honor of breast cancer awareness.
"It's a cause that's very close to me for I lost a friend a couple years ago to breast cancer," Sisk said. "I even have some friends now that are battling the disease. We always want to show our support. We want to help any way we can. The girls were completely on board and wanted to sport the pink all October."
For more information on the tournament, visit Rolltide.com
Players Mentioned
