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Oct. 11, 2012
SEATTLE - A young but more importantly healthy Husky women's tennis team swings into action for the first time this year at the St. Mary's Fall Invitational. The singles and doubles tourney in Moraga, Calif. runs from Friday through Sunday at the Timothy Korth Tennis Complex and the Moraga Country Club. Washington will have all nine players on its roster in attendance, including four freshmen expected to make their collegiate debuts. Washington has just one junior, Andjela Nemcevic, to go with four sophomores and four freshmen, but all four of the sophomores saw significant dual match play so there is plenty of experience to draw on. The biggest reason why Washington is looking for a bounce-back year in 2012-13 rather than a sixth straight NCAA tournament appearance is injuries, as nearly everyone on UW's roster spent some time on the injured list last year. The injury bug has been swatted away to start the fall, with only sophomore Riko Shimizu limited to doubles only this weekend as she works her way back from her late spring ankle issues. The sophomore class of Shimizu, Capucine Gregoire, Julija Lukac, and Natali Coronel all showed a ton of promise last season, so the fall results should be very interesting for Head Coach Jill Hultquist and Assistant Coach Luke Shields to monitor. Four freshmen could get their first taste of NCAA competition this weekend. Elianne Douglas-Miron, Brianna Kemp, Sarah Steele, and Grace Ysidora have been hard at work in practice the past few weeks and now get to face some different colored uniforms across the net. The field should present a tough challenge to start the year. St. Mary's itself edged the Huskies, 5-2, last year and made the NCAA tourney. Other schools in attendance include Pac-12 foes California and Stanford, Cal Poly, UC Davis, Gonzaga, Pacific, Sacramento State, Santa Clara, San Jose State, and San Francisco. The tourney should also be a good preview of the ITA Northwest Regionals, coming up at Stanford just next week. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
