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Jan. 20, 2010

WHAT:  No. 31 Texas opens the 2010 regular season this weekend against Rice.

WHEN:  Saturday, Jan. 23 – Noon Central

WHERE:  Penick-Allison Tennis Center – Austin, Texas

LAST MEETING VS. RICE:  Texas defeated Rice in the 2009 season opener by a 6-1 count in Austin. 

LIVE SCORING:  A live scoring link will be available on the women’s tennis schedule page at TexasSports.com prior to the match.

ITA RANKINGS UPDATE:  Freshman Aeriel Ellis leads the Longhorns’ contingent in the ITA preseason singles rankings, where she made her rankings debut at No. 22 after totaling a 17-5 fall singles record.  She claimed the main singles draw last October at the ITA Texas Regional Championships and earned a berth in the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships.

Sophomore Krista Damico ranks a career-best No. 27 in the ITA preseason singles rankings, and senior Vanja Corovic comes in at No. 59.  Damico and UT junior Amanda Craddock are ranked No. 27 in the ITA preseason doubles rankings.  

Rice’s Rebekka Hanle comes in at No. 73 in the ITA preseason singles rankings.

THOUGHTS FROM HEAD COACH Patty Fendick-McCain
On last week’s individual matches at Georgia and the team’s preparation for the upcoming ITA Kick-Off Weekend:
“Everybody came back ready to compete, and they had the opportunity to play indoor matches to get prepared for this first part of the season.  We wanted to get ready for our first dual match, and we wanted to prepare for the ITA National Indoor qualifying, which is next week (ITA Kick-Off Weekend).  

We were fortunate to get everyone a lot of matches in a short period of time indoors.  We were able to get our feet wet early on, which was great.  We played quite a bit of tennis and picked up a lot of good wins.  This group has worked really hard in practice and has supplemented the skills it already had with new ones.”

On Rice:
“Rice is tough.  They recruit better and better every year.  They’ve got a young and enthusiastic coach, and she’s doing a great job over there.  I think it’s going to be a great challenge for us.”

THE 2009-10 LONGHORNS:  Under fifth-year head coach Patty Fendick-McCain, the Longhorns return all six singles starters and five of six doubles starters from the 2009 squad that reached the finals at the Big 12 Championships and the round of 32 at the NCAA Championships. 

Corovic returns after earning All-Big 12 singles honors in each of her three seasons in Austin.  Senior Sarah Lancaster posted a 19-3 dual-match record last season and went unbeaten in conference play. 
Damico brings a 13-4 overall singles record into the dual-match season.