University of Houston Athletics
Tennis Embarks on Fall Season
10/5/2006 12:00:00 AM | Tennis
Oct. 5, 2006
HOUSTON - The University of Houston tennis team opens the fall season with the Cougar Fall Draw this weekend at Hoff Courts.
The Cougars play host to UTEP, Sam Houston State, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Southeastern Louisiana, Louisiana-Lafayette and Lee College.
Singles play will be split into three flights. Loli Gomez, Leila Salek, Meredith Giles and Anna Djananova will compete in the red flight. Rebecca Franzi, in addition to returnees Vicky Simpson and Sonja Nikolic, will see action in the white flight. Neila Starratt and D'Ondra McGee are slated to play in the blue flight.
"We're ready to compete against some other teams after a month of practicing against each other," head coach John Severance said. "We have four players in the Red Singles draw which is the strongest draw of the three. It's filled with potentially nationally ranked players. I expect our team to come out strong and set the tempo with a positive first day. "
There is only one main doubles draw. The Cougars will have four squads competing this weekend. The pairs of Salek-Gomez, Simpson-Djananova and Franzi-Nikolic have an opening round bye, while Starratt-Giles take on a pair from Lee College in the opening round.
"We have a lot more depth this season than in previous seasons," Severance said. "We have four strong doubles teams with different styles and different personalities. I'm really excited to see how these pairings work. The pairs are only for this tournament right now and could be different at the ITA in a couple of weeks. Our goal is to have the doubles pairings locked down by the end of the fall season."
Doubles play gets underway at 8am Friday with singles action to follow at 9:30am before concluding the afternoon with more doubles matches. Admission to Hoff Courts s free all weekend.
