Women's Tennis Begins Season at Rice Invitational
9/24/2009 12:00:00 AM | WOMEN'S TENNIS
CHICAGO - The DePaul women's tennis team travels to Texas to open its 2009-10 season at the Rice Tennis Classic. The three-day tournament is scheduled to be played at the Jake Hess Tennis Stadium, Sept. 25-27 in Houston, Texas.
The tournament features nine flights of singles. The first eight flights have eight student-athletes in each while the ninth flight is a round robin with three players. There is also four flights of doubles with draws of eight apiece. Consolation play for first round losers in both singles and doubles will be played on Saturday.
The Classic features 67 athletes from 10 different Universities - SMU, San Houston, Rice, UT-Arlington, UTSA, Tulane, Texas State, LSU, Oklahoma and Texas. The first flight includes four ranked players. Marta Lesniak (SMU) is the topped ranked player at No. 39 while DePaul's Anna Redecsi is at the opposite side of the bracket and is ranked No. 66. Aleksandrea Malyarchikova from SMU is No. 96 while UT-Arlington's Maria Romero Martinez is ranked No. 112.
Redecsi enters her senior season with a 57-19 singles record and could face Malyarchikova in the second round. Redecsi also begins the season ranked No. 31 with her doubles partner junior Selma Salkovic. The tandem posted a 21-4 record during the 2008-09 season and ranked as high as No. 64. Salkovic and Redecsi could face No. 13 Lesniak/Malyarchikova in the Championship of the first doubles flight.
Gia McKnight and Katarina Milinkovic will participate in the second flight of doubles play while Kirsten Gambrell and Sandra Zmak play in the third flight of doubles action.
Head coach Mark Ardizzone enters 14th season at the helm of the Blue Demon's tennis program. DePaul graduated just one senior in 2009 and returns seven players from its roster that advanced to the Championship of the BIG EAST Tournament.
Up Next: Select members of the Blue Demon squad will head the Riviera All-American Tournament in Los Angeles Oct. 3-11, while others will compete at the Wildcat Invitational Oct. 9-11.