Women's Tennis prepares for 2006 Spring season
01/27/2006 | 12:00:00 | Women's Tennis
Jan. 27, 2006
By Lacole Hook
www.siusalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. -The Southern Illinois women's tennis team opens the 2006 spring season Saturday at 4 p.m. against Wisconsin-Green Bay, in Chicago. The team will follow that up by traveling to Rockford, Ill. Sunday to face Northern Illinois at 1 p.m.
SIU returns five players following a 7-11 overall record and a 4-5 record in Missouri Valley Conference play in 2005.
The team is under the direction of first-year head coach René M. Vidal, who replaced Brett Bridel in late December. Vidal was the assistant women's tennis coach at Mississippi State last season when the bulldogs were SEC West Champions.
Vidal takes over a SIU team that only competed in one tournament in the fall and has had little time with the team this semester. Despite the short amount of practice time, Vidal has been impressed with the Salukis work ethic.
"The girls have exceeded my expectations in terms of their attitude and their professionalism," Vidal said. " We have been practicing extremely hard, and I feel that we have been getting a little bit better each day."
While the line-up for the weekend has not been finalized, the team will consist of seniors Maria Blanco, Zoya Honarmand and Zuzana Palovic; sophomores Laura Bredniak and Amanda Taillefer; and freshman Kathleen Maher.
Blanco played at the No. 1 spot for SIU last season with a 7-9 spring record. Taillefer finished with a 3-12 record at the No. 2 spot, while Honarmand was 2-13 in the No. 3 position. The only Saluki to finish with a winning record was Palovic who went 8-7 in the No. 4 slot. Bredniak competed primarily at the No. 5 spot with a 6-9 record.
The last competition for the Salukis was the Missouri Valley Conference Individuals at the end of September. With that much down time since their last match the team is excited to get back to action.
"We've got experienced competitors," said Vidal. "I believe that they are looking forward to this weekend. We don't have any outcome expectations. We are just going to be focusing on our performance and executing to the best of our ability."