Women’s Tennis Opening Spring Season Friday Morning

Friday, January 20

Memphis, Tenn.

9:00 am

University of Memphis

UAB

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Women’s Tennis Opening Spring Season Friday Morning

Jan 18, 2017 | Women's Tennis

Memphis hosting a 1-1 UAB squad Friday at 9 a.m.

By: Tammy DeGroff

MEMPHIS – The University of Memphis women's tennis team starts its spring season on Friday, facing UAB in a non-conference clash at 9 a.m. at The Racquet Club of Memphis. It will be the first match of the spring for Memphis, but will be the third for visiting UAB (1-1).

How to Follow the Match
                Live scoring at Memphis.Statbroadcast.com
                Facebook.com/MemphisWomensTennis
                Twitter: @UofMTennis

Where/When
                Where: The Racquet Club of Memphis
                When: 9 a.m., Friday
                Cost: Admission is free; match is played indoors on the stadium courts

About the Tigers (0-0)
    Memphis will look to seniors Marta Morga and Gabrielle Paul and juniors Anki Wind and Hanna Sohn to help the three-player freshman class get quickly acclimated to the college dual play format.
    Memphis filed a waiver with the NCAA to get Wind, a 2014 all-conference honoree, last season's eligibility back after she suffered a knee injury early last spring that forced her to miss the bulk of the dual season slate. She was granted her year back and is a redshirt junior for the 2016-17 season.
    In her first semester back, Wind led all Tigers with 11 singles wins in the fall, posting an 11-3 overall mark, while Sohn, who stepped up to play one singles last year following Wind's injury, posted eight wins in fall singles play.
    Freshman Katherine Cao also had eight wins in the fall, going 8-4, while her twin sister, Josephine, went 6-6.
    In doubles, Memphis used a number of different lineups, with the team of Sohn and Josephine Cao posting the best mark out of any of the 14 different combinations the Memphis staff used during the fall, going 4-0.

About UAB (1-1)
    UAB opened its spring team slate with a 4-3 road win at Lipscomb, then fell, 4-0, at Alabama. The Blazers dropped the doubles point in both of their first two matches and are looking to get off to a quicker start against the home-standing Memphis squad.
    The Blazer lineup is not totally unfamiliar to the Tigers, as both teams participated in tournaments at Samford and Alabama during the fall.
    Senior Pardis Kianoush has teamed with freshman Marlene Herrmann at one singles in both of the opening matches and Kianoush is 1-0 at one singles, while Herrmann is 0-1 at two singles. Kianoush is already 1-0 against the Tigers in singles this year, downing Anki Wind at the Samford fall tournament in one of Wind's first matches back from injury, 6-2, 6-2.
    Sophomore Reghan Lynch is 1-1 at three singles and has teamed with freshman Hana Sisirak at two doubles for a 0-2 start.
Hermann defeated Memphis freshman Josephine Cao at the Samford Invite, 6-2, 6-2, and teamed with Kianoush in doubles play to fall to the Tiger team of Gabrielle Paul and Josephine Cao, 8-7.

The Series History
    Memphis is 2-0 against UAB under Perez, including a 4-3 win on the road in Birmingham last year in which Hanna Sohn won a third set tiebreaker at one singles to clinch the road win, 2-6, 7-5, 7-6.
    The Tigers are 2-0 in spring dual openers under Perez, including a 5-2 win over UAB in Perez's first season in Memphis in 2015.

Coach Hayden Perez's Comments
    "Very excited, it's been a long wait. We finished our fall season and workouts right around Thanksgiving, so it's been about two months since we've been able to get around the girls and hit with them.
     I gave the girls a little bit longer break. We put a lot of responsibility on the team to get workouts done and play while they were home. I know the guys (team) got back early, but we didn't, we just got back this past weekend. The girls look great though, but we'll see on Friday, there are a lot of questions that will get answered then.
    We've got some great leadership. I'm really proud of that. We've got a group here that's now been under my tutelage here for two and a half years. They're seniors; they've got a lot of experience and have shared a lot of experiences with the younger kids. I think our freshmen are coming in ready to go though, so we're excited."