The women’s tennis team will open its fall season at the Cornell Fall Invitational, which will be held this Saturday and Sunday at the Reis Tennis Center. The team will be hosting upstate rivals Syracuse and Binghamton, as well as out of state foes Lehigh and Rutgers. Unlike team matches in the spring, this and other fall tournaments are completely individual, giving players coming back from the summer time to work the rust out with some real match experience.
“[The fall tournaments] are a chance for everyone to work on their games without the pressure of a dual match,” said second year head coach Tom Brownlie ’98, “and also give me a chance to get our doubles teams together.”
The tournament’s singles format will consist of three flights; A, B, and C, each including three players from each team, with the top players in the A bracket. There will also be two doubles flights, each including two pairs from each team.
Returning for the Red this year are five of last years top six singles players, including senior Laura Leigh Tallent, juniors Akana Kokubo, Erika Takeuchi, Melissa Tu, and sophomore Kara Maloy. Also returning are sophomores Liying Wang, Jennifer Liu, and Molly Edison, who all primarily played doubles last year. A talented group of freshmen, including Kasia Preneta and Nisha Suda, is expected to make an immediate impact on the team.
“We may see some new faces in the singles lineup, and definitely in the doubles lineup,” said Brownlie of his freshmen.
Although the team lost to Rutgers last year, it defeated Syracuse and is a perennial winner over Binghamton, giving the Red an optimistic outlook going into this weekend’s tournament. Matches start at 8 a.m. Saturday morning, and will conclude Sunday afternoon.
Archived article by Brian Clouser