Women's Tennis Begins Fall Season in Oklahoma
9/23/2010 12:00:00 AM | WOMEN'S TENNIS
Sept. 23, 2010
CHICAGO - The DePaul women's tennis team begins its 2010-11 season this weekend at the Oklahoma Sooner Invitational, Sept. 24-26 at the Headington Family Tennis Center. Competition begins Friday at 9 a.m. (CST)
The tournament features student-athletes from Arkansas, Arkansas-Little Rock, North Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Portland, SMU, Texas Tech, Tulsa and Wichita State. Seven of the 11 teams, including the Blue Demons, finished last season ranked nationally by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.
The Blue Demon pair of Gia McKnight and Selma Salkovic begin the 2010-11 season ranked No. 31 in the ITA doubles rankings. The tandem won their only match together in 2009-10, while they went 6-4 when paired together in 2008-09.
Salkovic enters her senior season with the distinction of being DePaul's winningest doubles player all-time as she boasts an impressive 95-32 record. Last season, Salkovic and her partner Anna Redecsi, who graduated in 2010, became the first DePaul pair to win the ITA Indoor Regional and advance to the Indoor Championship. The duo also became the first Blue Demon pair to earn an at-large berth to the NCAA Doubles Championship in the spring and was ranked in the top 20 for the entire spring season. The pair finished 2009-10 with a 30-8 record and fell to the No. 1 pair in the country from Tennessee in the NCAA Championship.
With Cali Gustafson, Katarina Milinkovic, McKnight and Salkovic returning from last season's NCAA roster, the Blue Demons welcome three new faces in Samantha Kaneta, Kelsey Lawson and Christiana Raymond. All three newcomers' tout impressive credentials while Lawson went undefeated in her last two high school seasons.
