Texas A&M Women’s Tennis Kicks Off Fall Campaign

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The Texas A&M women's tennis team begins its fall tournament season Friday at both the Oracle/ITA Masters in Malibu, Calif., and at Baylor's Under Armour/HEB  Kickoff in Waco, Texas.
 
"Starting the year with the Oracle/ITA Masters and the Under Armour Baylor Invitational will give our group of ladies some much needed competition," said A&M first-year head coach Mark Weaver. "It's that tricky time of the year when we haven't really had much time to prepare, having only been able to start our first team practices this week. There is no way to really know for sure how well we will play other than I know that our girls will give it a great effort.
 
"Our main goals will be to gain some experience and compete in some tough matches and also experiment with some new doubles pairings. It will be nice to see our team back competing and also getting our first look at our new freshman, Domenica Gonzalez, wearing the maroon and white."
 
Juniors Rachel Pierson and Saska Gavrilovska will be competing against the elite players in the nation at the inaugural Oracle/ITA Masters, the first national collegiate championship of the 2015-16 season. The tournament will be held Sept. 18-20 at the Malibu Racquet Club.
 
Pierson, the 2015 ITA Texas Region Player to Watch who enters the fall season ranked a team-high and career-high No. 18 in singles, will compete in the 16-player singles field. She also will team with Gavrilovska as a wildcard entry in the eight-team doubles field.
 
Tournament draws will be available at ITATennis.com and live scoring of the matches will be available at http://www.tennisticker.de/usa/ita/ita2178/sb.html
 
A&M returners Rutuja Bhosale, Ines Deheza, Stefania Hristov, Anna Mamalat and Eva Paalma, along with newcomer Gonzalez will compete in the three-day Under Armour/HEB Kickoff at the Hurd Tennis Center. A&M, which returns its entire lineup from last year's team that went 17-6 and was No. 10 in the final rankings, will compete against Alabama, Baylor and Ohio State using a hidden dual format. Baylor was No. 8 in the 2015 final rankings, and Alabama and Ohio State were ranked 14^th and 21^st, respectively.
 
The Aggies open with doubles against Baylor at 2 p.m. on Friday, followed by singles competition against Ohio State at 3 p.m.
 
On Saturday, A&M faces the Buckeyes at 11 a.m. in doubles and Alabama at noon in singles.
 
The Aggies close out the tournament Sunday morning, facing Alabama in doubles at 9 a.m. and taking on Baylor in singles at 10 a.m.
 
Live online streaming of the matches will be available at http://www.baylorbears.com/sports/m-tennis/live-stats-video.html
 
The complete Under Armour/HEB Kickoff schedule is as follows:
 
Friday
2 p.m. (Doubles)
Texas A&M vs.  Baylor
Alabama vs. Ohio State
 
3 p.m. (Singles)
Ohio State vs. Texas A&M
Baylor vs. Alabama
 
Saturday
11 a.m. (Doubles)
Texas A&M vs. Ohio State
Baylor vs. Alabama
 
12 p.m. (Singles)
Alabama vs. Texas A&M
Baylor vs. Ohio State
 
Sunday
9 a.m. (Doubles)
Baylor vs. Ohio State
Alabama vs. Texas A&M
 
10 a.m. (Singles)
Texas A&M vs. Baylor
Alabama vs. Ohio State
 
Visit 12thMan.com for more information on Texas A&M women's tennis. Aggie fans also can keep up to date with the A&M women's tennis team on Twitter by following @AggieWTEN or on Facebook at Facebook.com/AggieWomensTennis.