Lady Netters Open Season at Indiana Invitational
03/13/2001 | 12:00:00 | Women's Tennis
September 15, 2000
With a gap to fill after losing its top two players from a year ago, the Southern Illinois University Carbondale women's tennis team will bring a blend of youth and experience to its fall season opener Fri.-Sun., Sept. 15-17 at the Indiana Invitational in Bloomington, Ind.
The Salukis, who are no strangers to the annual event, will join host Indiana, Ball State, Western Michigan, Miami of Ohio, and Kansas in what SIU Head Coach Judy Auld thinks will be a tough pool of competitors.
"Indiana and Kansas are very strong teams and I look at this tournament as being an opportunity to make a good showing regionally," said Auld. "We're not going into the tournament at full strength and the main thing right now is to just get going in competition."
SIU will indeed have to "get going" early this season as it is forced to do some adjusting after its top two products in Simona Petrutiu and Pamela Floro decided to leave the team. Petrutiu and Floro, both all-MVC selections from a year ago, combined for a 25-3 record in No. 1 doubles that included a perfect league mark of 11-0.
The Salukis, however, have no reason to panic as juniors Ana Serrot and Erika Ochoa will take over the top two singles slots. Serrot, who played in the No. 3 spot last season, compiled an overall record of 13-16 while Ochoa registered the most wins on the team with 22 on the year. Additionally, Ochoa was also named to the Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete Team.
"After this weekend, we'll look at what we need to work on," commented Auld. "We do have some youth that will have to get some playing time and that is how I am going to utilize this tournament--as an opportunity to see what we need to do better."