Canes to Begin Play at USTA Clay Court Invite
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The University of Miami women’s tennis team will begin play in its final team event of the 2014 fall season Thursday morning in Orlando, Fla.
Miami will be one of 22 women’s teams competing in the USTA Collegiate Clay Court Invitational Presented by VisitFlorida.com. Held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World, the tournament will begin Thursday, October 20 and finish on Sunday, November 2.
“It’s nice to get back on the road with all the girls again,” said head coach Paige Yaroshuk-Tews said. “This tournament will be a nice finale to the fall season from a team standpoint.”
The tournament, hosted by Florida State University, will feature 20 teams that finished the 2014 season with a national ranking. Ten of those programs, including Miami, ended the season ranked among the top 25 teams in the nation. The Hurricanes also will be one of seven ACC teams participating.
Yaroshuk-Tews is looking forward to her players having the chance to perform on a clay court and also sees a freshman-heavy team starting to come together as they head towards the culmination of the team’s fall season.
“A lot of my players have grown up on clay so they’re excited to play a collegiate event on familiar territory,” Yaroshuk-Tews explained. “Freshmen are coming into their own and beginning to learn their roles.”
Eight players will be participating and five of them will start play on Thursday. In the A Draw, three of the top six seeds are Hurricanes, with junior Stephanie Wagner at No. 1, senior Lina Lileikite No. 2 and senior Monique Albuquerque No. 6. Wagner and Lileikite both have opening round byes and will begin their play Friday at 8:00 a.m. Albuquerque has her first match Thursday at 12:00 p.m.
In the B Draw, No. 3-4 seed, freshman Wendy Zhang, opens at 12:00 p.m. Thursday, while junior Clementina Riobueno, the No. 5-8 seed, and freshman Sinead Lohan will have their first matches at 2:00 p.m. Thursday.
Freshman Silvia Fuentes is the No. 1 seed in the C Draw and she has a first round bye. Her opening match will take place on Friday at 8:30 a.m. Fellow freshman and C Draw participant Judith Bohnenkamp begins play at 3:30 p.m. Thursday.
Action from the tournament is being broadcast on ESPN3.com and the WatchESPN app.
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