Bearkats open tennis action Friday
1/28/2014 2:00:00 PM | Women's Tennis
Sam Houston's women's tennis season opens its 2014 schedule Friday at 2 p.m. by hosting NorthCentralTexasCollege.
The match is the first of six consecutive home matches in the next three weeks for the Bearkats.
Five players including three seniors return from last year's tennis squad that reached the Southland post-season tournament semifinals for the second consecutive time.
Imke Jagau, Natalie Petaia and Kayla Stevenson have been part of each of the last three Bearkat squads and bring leadership to the 2014 team. Petaia and Stevenson come from Australia while Jagau has played for Namibia in the WorldUniversity games.
Olivia Battye is a junior and Maddie Mortimore returns as a sophomore. Mortimore earned All-Southland honors at No. 5 singles last season. Both players are from Great Britian.
New faces on the team are freshmen Isabella Costa from Australia and sophomore transfer Karen Martinez from Columbia.
“We're excited about the experience this year's team brings to each match,” SHSU head coach Jim Giachino said. “We had an outstanding fall, playing tournaments at Stephen F. Austin, NorthwesternState, here in Huntsville and at the ITA regional. Each of our players picked up some quality wins during the fall.”
Following Friday's season opener, Sam Houston will play host to McMurry Sunday at 1 p.m. On Friday, Feb. 7 and Saturday, Feb. 8, the Kats will battle Oral Roberts and TylerJunior College, respectively. The early home stand ends with duels against ArkansasState on Feb. 9 and TarletonState Feb. 15.
The ORU match is a Southland Conference contest. Other home Southland dual matches include tilts with New Orleans March 7, Southeastern Louisiana March 8, Central Arkansas March 28 and Abilene Christian April 12.
The 2014 Southland Conference tournament, which decides the league's representative in the NCAA playoffs, begins Friday, April 25, in Abilene.
Sam Houston home matches are played at the McAdamsTennisCenter next door to the HKC building.
