University of Memphis Athletics
Women's Tennis Ready for Home Tourney
Oct 16, 2002 | Women's Tennis
Oct. 16, 2002
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - When The University of Memphis women's tennis team opens its Varsity Pro Shop Invitational, Friday, at 9:30 a.m., two Lady Tigers will be looking to hit the double-digit win mark in their fourth tournament of the season.
Senior Sumitra Rao (Madras, India) and sophomore Marlene Dirnstorfer (Pinsdorf, Austria) both enter the tournament with 9-1 singles records. Rao won the B singles championship at both the Saint Louis and the Middle Tennessee tournaments, while Dirnstorfer won the C singles championship at the same tournaments. Both players also went 3-0 through the Southern Illinois-Carbondale tournament, which was a team round-robin format with no individual champions.
Senior Sabrina Lindemann (Linz, Austria), the C-USA Women's Tennis Player of the Month for September, is also off to an impressive start, with a 7-1 singles record and a tournament title under her belt from the season-opening Saint Louis tournament. Lindemann has also teamed with fellow senior Monica Gonzalez-Gordo (Barcelona, Spain) to win the A Doubles championship last weekend at Middle Tennessee. The duet has a 6-1 doubles record and began the season ranked No. 31 in the country.
Three other Lady Tiger newcomers are having solid starts to their Lady Tiger careers. Freshman Andrea Feichtinger (Neukirchen, Austria) advanced to the finals in both individual fall tournaments Memphis played in this fall, falling to teammate Dirnstorfer at Saint Louis, 6-3, 1-6, 7-10, and to UAB's Yvonne Ernst, 6-3, 7-6 (2) last weekend. Feichtinger has had two different doubles partners so far this fall, posting a perfect 9-0 record. She is 3-0 with fellow Austrian Dirnstorfer, and is 6-0 with Rao after capturing the B Doubles championship at Middle Tennessee last week.
Freshman Kristen Noble (Germantown, Tenn.), a Memphis-area product who won a Tennessee State High School title as a junior, is 6-2 in the early part of her Lady Tiger career. Noble won the D Consolation title at Saint Louis and is also 5-4 in doubles play with teammate Rebecca Garner (Billericay, England).
Sophomore Viktoria Gruber (Vienna, Austria) has rocketed off to a 6-2 start in singles play, falling to teammate Sumitra Rao in the finals of the Saint Louis tournament before teaming with Rao to post a 1-1 record in doubles. Gruber, now teamed with Feichtinger in doubles, went 3-1 in doubles at the Middle Tennessee State tournament to improve her doubles mark to 4-2.
Six teams will participate in the two-day Lady Tiger tennis tournament. Southern Illinois-Carbondale, fellow C-USA member Saint Louis, Ball State, Murray State and Tennessee Tech will join Memphis in the tournament. Singles play is slated to begin at 9:30 a.m., Friday, with first-round doubles tentatively planned for after 3 p.m. The finals for both singles and doubles will be played Saturday.
Players Mentioned
