Feb. 9, 2010

Coach Sisk's Comment's Following Tuesday's Practice

NEW ORLEANS - The Tulane University women's tennis team returns to action on Wednesday, Feb. 10,w hen the Green Wave play host to cross-town rival Privateers of the University of New Orleans at 3 p.m. at the Goldring Tennis Center.

The Green Wave enter the midweek matchup 2-1 on the young spring season after downing Southeastern Louisiana on Saturday afternoon, 6-1, in the team's home opener. Wednesday's match marks the second straight year Tulane and UNO face each other following a four-season layoff, and the Green Wave won the last meeting, 5-2, on Jan. 22, 2009.

"We're excited to play UNO," Tulane women's tennis coach Terri Sisk said. "Last year was a nice match and we were able to prevail then. The girls are always interested to looking on how we did in the past, but like I told them, as much as we've changed this year other teams have changed as well.

"We have to come out, be mentally ready and prepared to fight for every point. UNO just beat a good Southeastern Louisiana team, so we're looking forward to playing this match. We know we'll have our hands full for sure."

As a team, the Green Wave are 61-50 in singles play, including an 11-7 mark in dual-match action. Sophomore Mariam Kurdadze leads the team with an 11-5 singles record and is 3-0 so far this spring. Freshman Emma Levy is also 3-0 in dual-match competition and ranks second on the squad with nine singles victories.

After not playing a doubles match in the first two contests of the season, the Green Wave made up for lost time on Saturday against the Lions by sweeping the point by a combined score of 24-6. Kurdadze and Levy lead the team with a 7-5 doubles record while the combination of Marcela Fonseca and Caroline Gerber are close behind with a 6-2 record. As a team, Tulane is 28-23 in doubles action during the 2009-10 season.

"The first three matches are always a little bit about nerves," Sisk said. "With three freshmen in the line-up, this is new for them. Even though they played in the fall, the dual match season is a little bit different because their court actually counts toward the team score. I absolutely think we've gotten better since we opened up with New Mexico.

"Every match we play, we get better. It's interested thing to see the girls' confidence levels change. You can even see it from New Mexico to now, and that's just a period of two weeks. I'm excited to see what happens from here."

UNO, meanwhile, comes to campus 2-0 on the year after defeating Southern and Southeastern Louisiana by identical 5-2 scores on Jan. 31 and Feb. 8, respectively. As a team, the Privateers are 8-4 in singles play and 5-1 in doubles action during the spring. Cassandra Escobar, Amber Garza, Sofija Karalic and Kristina Martic are all 2-0 in singles action while the tandem of Garza and Ceara Howey lead UNO with a 2-0 doubles mark.

Following Wednesday's match against UNO, the Green Wave return to action on Friday, Feb. 12, when they travel to Dallas to take on Conference USA rival and nationally-ranked SMU at 2 p.m. The match against the Mustangs is the first of four straight road contests for Tulane, as the Green Wave will play at Oklahoma State on Feb. 13, at Northwestern State on Feb. 17 and at Mississippi State on Feb. 25.

Tulane's next home match is slated for Saturday, Feb. 27, when it plays host to Troy at 10 a.m. at the Goldring Tennis Center. Admission to all regular-season home Tulane tennis matches is free.

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