University of Minnesota Athletics
Women's Tennis to Play Events in California, Iowa
9/24/2010 12:00:00 AM | Tennis
The women's tennis team returns to competition this weekend at both the 2010 Cal Nike Invitational and the 2010 University of Northern Iowa Women's Tennis Invitational.
The four Gophers competing in the Berkley, Calif., event from Sept. 24-26 are Magdalena Wiecha, Natallia Pintusava, Alessandra Ferrazzi and Alexa Palen. All four are making their season debut and Pintusava, a freshman from Minsk, Belarus, is making her collegiate debut. Ferrazzi, an All-Big Ten selection and team MVP last season, was 24-15 a year ago as a junior.
All four Gophers will compete in singles play and Wiecha will partner with Pintusava for doubles action. Ferrazzi and Palen, who were 12-9 overall last year when paired together and 11-6 at No. 1 doubles, will also team up.
"Alessandra, Magdalena, Alexa and Natasha are all really eager to compete," coach Tyler Thomson said. "They believe in themselves and will play hard on every point. Alessandra and Alexa have developed into a very good doubles team, and it will be fun to watch them play together again this fall. Magdalena and Natasha are a new doubles team with a lot of potential. Overall, I'm very excited for all of them and I know they will represent Minnesota well."
The four players headed to the Sept. 24-26 Northern Iowa tournament are Mariana Spilca, Peta Forsyth, Elianna Kantar and Emilie Renault. All four recently competed in singles and doubles at the Drake Fall Invitational. They will all play singles and doubles this weekend as well. Spilca and Renault will play doubles together, as will Forsyth and Kantar.
Forsyth led the way with a 2-2 record in singles play at the Drake event. Kantar and Renault were both 2-1, while Spilca was 0-3. In doubles, Spilca and Renault were 2-1 and Forsyth and Kantar were 1-2.
Players Mentioned
