Sept. 16, 2010
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Five members of the Texas A&M women's tennis team open the fall season Friday at the Racquet Club Collegiate Invitational in Midland, Texas.
The Aggies only recently started fall practices, but A&M coach Bobby Kleinecke is excited for the players to experience the competition the tournament provides.
"This tournament will be a good test for us, and it will give us a good indication of what we need to work on," said Kleinecke, who is entering his 26th season at the helm of the Aggies. "We've had some good practices so far, and it will be good to get in some matches."
Seniors Stephanie Davidson (Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas) and Christi Liles (Largo, Fla.), juniors Sheri Olivier (Topeka, Kan.) and Lauren Santacroce (Spring, Texas), and redshirt sophomore Janelle Cuthbertson (Perth, Australia), who sat out the spring season, will be competing in the tournament, which gets underway Friday and runs through Sunday.
In addition to the singles draw, Cuthbertson and Liles will team together in doubles, as will Davidson and Olivier.
Cuthbertson missed the spring season with an injury but had success once she got back on the court in the summer, winning the ITA Summer Circuit singles title in College Station. Santacroce also will be looking to compete once again after having off-season foot surgery in June.
"Janelle had a good summer and has her confidence back, so it will be good to see her back out there," Kleinecke said. "And this will be the first tournament for Lauren since her foot surgery. The practices have helped her, and this tournament will be another opportunity for her to test it out and get out there and hit a lot of balls."
Other schools that will be represented include Baylor, Boise State, Penn State, Pepperdine, Rice and SMU.
Aggie senior Morgan Frank (Oldsmar, Fla.) and sophomore Nazari Urbina (Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico) will not participate in the tournament as they have been invited to compete in the prestigious ITA /Riviera All-American Championships, Oct. 2-10 in Palisades, Calif. Urbina is No. 33 in the NCAA Division I preseason singles rankings, and Frank is No. 71. The two are No. 45 in the preseason doubles rankings.
Other tournaments A&M players are slated to participate in this fall are the ITA Regional Qualifier, Oct. 22-26 in Waco, Texas, and the North Carolina Invitational in Chapel Hill on Nov. 5-7.
Kleinecke returns all but one starter from last year's team that went 14-10 and made an 11th consecutive NCAA appearance. Elzé Potgieter completed her four-year career ranked seventh in the A&M records for singles victories with 90.