HAMMOND – The Southeastern Louisiana women's tennis team will open the 2013 season this week with three matches away from home in a two-day span.
The Lions will open the season on Friday, facing Jackson State (0-2) at 1 p.m. in Jackson, Miss. On Saturday, Southeastern will open the day's slate with a 12 p.m. match at Louisiana Tech (1-0). At 4 p.m., the Lions have added a match with Grambling (0-1).
Southeastern head coach
Jason Hayes is eager to see his team in action for the first time this spring.
“We had a great fall and we feel we've greatly improved our overall talent level with the additions we've made,” Hayes commented. “We feel like playing three road matches to start the season will give us a good indication of where we're at and what we need to improve. Louisiana Tech has defeated us the past two seasons, so Saturday's match will be a good test to see how much we've improved.”
Southeastern will feature five new faces in the singles lineup. Freshmen
Reginka Nychytailova,
Nastya Tokareva,
Renee Villarreal and
Sarah Kriem all earned spots in the starting six with their performances during the fall.
Making her Southeastern debut on Friday will be junior
Valya Rusakova, who sat out the fall. Rusakova transferred from Michigan State, where she was 13-11 playing predominantly at No. 2 in the Spartans' singles lineup as a freshman.
Senior
Isabel Brito, sophomore
Adriana Castillo and sophomore
Morgane Dadot round out the Southeastern roster. Hayes expects all eight of his players to see action in singles or doubles play during the opening trio of matches.
Louisiana Tech opened the season with a 4-3 win over Southeastern's Southland Conference foe Central Arkansas. Jackson State is looking for its first win after losing to McNeese State and William Carey to open the season. Grambling's only match this spring was a 7-0 loss to UCA.
Following this weekend's action, Southeastern will head to Southern on Wednesday for a 1 p.m. match. The Lions open their home schedule on Feb. 16, when they host William Carey at 1 p.m.
