HAMMOND – The Southeastern Louisiana University women’s tennis team will open its 2010 spring schedule on Sunday, facing Alcorn State at 1 p.m. at the Oak Knoll Country Club.
The Lady Lions return three starters from last season’s squad and have added five newcomers. The team will be one of the youngest rosters in recent memory and feature four freshmen and four sophomores.
Southeastern head coach
Jason Hayes – a three-time Southland Conference Coach of the Year – is heading into his ninth season at the helm of the Lady Lion program with optimism.
“We’re certainly young, but we’re excited about the talent level of this team,” Hayes commented. “One of the advantages to having a young team is that we can build a solid foundation not only for this season, but for the future of our program.
“We just have to focus on getting better each day,” Hayes continued. “Top to bottom, this is as strong as the Southland Conference has been since I’ve been here and we’re going to have to be ready each and every time out against our league competition.”
Sophomore
Audrey Chelini is the top returner for the Lady Lions. The Bordeaux, France native was 14-7 overall in singles play as a freshman and earned second team All-Louisiana honors in 2009. Sophomores
Morgane Dadot (10-10) and
Annika Hanke (8-10) head into 2010 as the other Lady Lion veterans.
“When she’s on her game, Audrey is talented enough to compete with anybody,” Hayes said. “Morgane and Annika have worked extremely hard and I feel that both of them head into their sophomore seasons much improved players.”
The Lady Lions will welcome five newcomers –
Camille Pilon,
Isabel Brito,
Mia Hagiu,
Nina Schmied and
Alexandra Lindahl – into the fold for the 2010 campaign. Hayes believes several of those players will have an immediate impact.
“We’re very excited about the prospects of our newcomers,” Hayes stated. “There’s a lot of talent in that group and they’ve shown that they are willing to work hard to continue to improve and get acclimated to Division I tennis. We feel that we’re a much deeper team with this group and our bottom half of the singles draw has the potential to be very strong.”
Following Sunday’s match, Southeastern will play its next 10 matches away from home. The Lady Lions’ road swing begins on Feb. 6, when they face Tulane at 1 p.m. in New Orleans.