U-M Hosts Wolverine Invitational to Kick Off Fall Season
9/29/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Sept. 29, 2009
THIS WEEK
Fri-Sun., Oct. 2-4 -- host Wolverine Invitational (Varsity Tennis Center), 10 a.m.
• Day One Order (PDF)
• Draws (PDF): Maize | Blue | Wolverine
»
The University of Michigan women's tennis team opens the fall tournament slate by hosting the Wolverine Invitational, Fri.-Sun. Oct. 2-4, at the Varsity Tennis Center. Eastern Michigan, Marquette, Miami (Ohio), Purdue, South Carolina and Western Michigan are scheduled to join the Wolverines in the three-day event. Action will begin each day at 10 a.m.
WOLVERINE BITES
First action of 2009-10 -- This weekend's tournament will mark the beginning of the 2009 fall tournament portion of the schedule for the Wolverines. U-M has not hosted a fall event since 2007, when the Varsity Tennis Center played host to both the Wolverine Invitational and the Wilson/ITA Midwest Regional Championships in head coach Ronni Bernstein's first season. The Wolverines will not be back in action in Ann Arbor until the calendar flips to 2010, hosting the Michigan Invitational, Jan. 16-18.
Duo of Newcomers -- The Wolverines welcome two newcomers for the 2009-10 season in Taylor Fournier (Leawood, Kan./Blue Valley North) and Mimi Nguyen (Long Beach, Calif./Millikan).
Juniors anchor the Wolverines -- The junior quartet of Denise Muresan (Lincolnshire, Ill./Adlai E. Stevenson), Whitney Taney (Edina, Minn./Edina), Rika Tatsuno (Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif./Palos Verdes Peninsula) and Kari Wig (Cochrane, Alberta/Cochrane) accounts for a large chunk of the team. With only one senior, one sophomore and two freshmen, the junior class is half the size of the eight-member Wolverines.
From Afar -- Out of the eight athletes on the tennis team, not one of them is a native of Michigan. Four hail from California with Illinois, Minnesota, Kansas and Canada each producing one athlete. The only other varsity team at the University of Michigan that is full of non-Michiganders is, coincidentally, the men's tennis team.
ITA Preseason Rankings -- Several Wolverines received preseason ITA rankings with Rika Tatsuno (Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif./Palos Verdes Peninsula) coming in at No. 74, the only U-M player to earn a singles ranking. Tatsuno earned All-Big Ten honors last season with a 24-13 overall record and a 15-10 dual-match mark. The duo of Tatsuno and Whitney Taney (Edina, Minn./Edina) was tabbed as the No. 32 pair in the country with a 15-5 record in 2009 while the pairing of Tania Mahtani (Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif./Palos Verdes Peninsula) and Mimi Nguyen (Long Beach, Calif./Millikan) took the No. 50 spot.
Oh Captain! -- Junior Whitney Taney (Edina, Minn./Edina) was voted by her teammates as the captain of the 2009-10 Wolverines. Taney was Michigan's Big Ten Sportsmanship Award honoree last season, in addition to being named an ITA Scholar Athlete and Academic All-Big Ten.
Leader of the Wolverines -- Head coach Ronni Bernstein enters her third season at the helm of Michigan women's tennis. In her first two seasons in Ann Arbor, Bernstein has compiled an impressive record of 37-13 with an 18-2 Big Ten Conference mark. She has led the Wolverines to postseason play in both seasons, with Chisako Sugiyama earning a berth to the NCAA singles tournament in 2008 and 2009.
A Look Back at 2009 -- The Wolverines ended the 2009 dual-match season with an 18-7 overall record to go along with a 9-1 mark in Big Ten action. U-M concluded the season with a No. 18 ITA national team ranking, improving on the No. 19 finish in 2008. U-M made it to the NCAA Tournament for the eighth consecutive season before bowing to No. 5 Notre Dame in the second round. Chisako Sugiyama became the program's leader in all-time singles wins, eventually ending her career with 104 victories while earning All-Big Ten honors for the third consecutive season. Sugiyama completed her senior season with a No. 69 ITA national ranking. Rika Tatsuno (Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif./Palos Verdes Peninsula) earned All-Big Ten laurels for the first time in her career, ending the season ranked No. 102.
TWITTER-TASTIC
Michigan women's tennis is now on Twitter. Sign up and follow the Wolverines (Michigan_tennis) with up-to-the-minute news and information throughout the season and beyond. Twitter is a free casual, online social network that is designed to connect businesses, organizations and individuals. Each Twitter post (or "tweet") can be received on a user's cell phone via text or on the web.
VARSITY TENNNIS CENTER
Completed in 1997, the $6 million indoor and outdoor complex provides the Wolverine tennis programs with a state-of-the-art on-campus training and competition site that is an excellent recruiting tool, and a premier and nationally competitive facility to nurture Michigan tennis players for many more decades to come. The Varsity Tennis Center has undergone a number of extensive upgrades over the past five years, including the addition of indoor and outdoor electronic scoreboards, individual video cameras on each indoor court, and new indoor and outdoor audio systems. Just this past summer, outdoor chair back seating was added overlooking six of the outdoor courts.
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Following this weekend of competition, Rika Tatsuno (Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif./Palos Verdes Peninsula) and Whitney Taney (Edina, Minn./Edina) will jet off to Pacific Palisades, Calif. to participate in ITA/All-American qualifying, Oct. 6 and 7. Tatsuno will compete in qualifying singles while also pairing with Taney in doubles action. The duo of Tania Mahtani (Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif./Palos Verdes Peninsula) and Mimi Nguyen (Long Beach, Calif./Millikan) was originally listed as an alternate for doubles qualifying but the twosome will now compete in qualifying action. To advance to the main draw (Oct. 8-11), qualifiers must win three rounds. The next team event for the Wolverines is the Kentucky Invitational, Oct. 9-11 at the University of Kentucky. The ITA Regionals in Evanston, Ill., are slated for Oct. 22-27 with a trip to the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships (Nov. 5-8) on the line. The Thunderbird Invitational at Arizona State (Nov. 6-8) concludes the fall tournament schedule.
Oct. 6-11 -- at ITA/All-American (Pacific Palisades, Calif.)
Oct. 9-11 -- at Kentucky Invitational (Lexington, Ky.)
Oct. 22-27 -- at ITA Regionals (Evanston, Ill.)
Nov. 5-8 -- at ITA Indoor Singles/Doubles (New Haven, Conn.)
Nov. 6-8 - at Arizona State Thunderbird (Tempe, Ariz.)
Contact: Sarah VanMetre (734) 763-4423
