MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. ? The 62nd-ranked University of South Alabama women’s tennis team will open the 2007 spring dual match season this weekend when it competes at the Minnesota Court Classic hosted by the University of Minnesota at the Baseline Tennis Center. Admission is free to the public.
The two day tournament is scheduled to open play with the Jags and No. 18 Wake Forest on Saturday at 10 a.m., with the host Gophers taking on Western Michigan at 3 p.m. in the other semifinal match. On Sunday, the third-place match will begin at 9 a.m., while the tournament championship match is scheduled to start at 1 p.m.
“Starting the season against Wake Forest, who is nationally ranked, will be a good gauge to see where we are,” said South Alabama women’s tennis head coach Jaco Keyser. “We are certainly starting off with some strong competition.
South Alabama (0-0) enters play this weekend returning five players from last season’s squad, including Adrianna Solarova, who finished the 2006 season ranked No. 56 in singles play. USA ended last spring with a 15-10 record and ranked 61st by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. This past fall, the Jaguar women recorded one of their best fall campaigns in recent years. Sophomore Michaela Babicova led the way with an 8-2 record. Solarova and fellow junior Jelena Krivacevic were right behind her with a 7-2 and 5-2 mark, respectively. In doubles play, Babicova and her partner Dijana Stanic paced the Jags with seven victories. This spring, USA also welcomes two newcomers in Yana Bokareva, a sophomore from Moscow, Russia, and Rita Freitas, a freshman from Lisbon, Portugal.
South Alabama’s day one opponent, Wake Forest (0-0), comes in the weekend tourney returning seven letterwinners from last season’s squad, which finished 14-10 on the season and ranked No. 22 by the ITA. Alex Hirsch leads the 2007 Demon Deacons and is the highest ranked singles player on the squad, coming in at 29th overall. The junior finished the fall season with an 11-4 record. Deacon sophomore Sierra Poske led the team in the fall with 14 singles victories.
Fellow sophomore Christian Tara (55th) and senior Ashlee Davis (79th) and the doubles tandem of Davis and Sasha Kulikova are ranked No. 49 in the nation by the ITA as well. Wake Forest is one of seven teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference ranked in the preseason Top 25.
The home tournament will mark the season opener for Minnesota. Leading the Golden Gophers in singles action is freshman Tijana Koprivica (10-3) and senior Ida Malmberg (10-4). In the doubles play, the Gopher duo of Danielle Mousseau and Marina Spilca recorded a team-best eight wins during the fall season.
Western Michigan comes in as the only team in the tournament to have already begun its spring season. The Broncos dropped their first two matches of the season, falling 4-3 to Indiana State and 5-2 to Indiana. WMU, however, notched a pair of back-to-back 7-0 victories over IPFW and Wisconsin-Green Bay last weekend. The Lady Broncos are led by Kerstin Pahl, who has an overall record of 9-5 and a dual match mark of 2-0. This past week, junior Priyanka Parekh was named the Mid-American Conference Player of the Week, the second straight WMU player to earn the honor this season. Pahl was also named the MAC Player of the Week earlier in the season.
