Tennis Season Opens in Midland
9/11/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
The Rice women's tennis team will open their 2014 tournament season this weekend when they travel to Midland, Texas to compete in the Racquet Club Collegiate Invitational. Competition kicks off on Friday in both singles and doubles and runs through Sunday.
"We're looking forward to going back to Midland," Rice head coach Elizabeth Schmidt said. `It's such a special tournament because we house with (local) families there and our host families over the years have been awesome. It's a good way to start the season. It's a high quality tournament with a number of ranked players," Schmidt added.
Seniors Natalie Beazant and Liat Zimmerman, who have earned a main draw berth in the ITA All American later this fall and are ranked 20th in the first ITA rankings, have drawn the top seed in doubles while Beazant, who won the singles and doubles titles in 2012 is seeded third in singles.
Incoming freshman Savannah Durkin is seeded 11th in singles, while fellow freshman Lindsey Hodge and sophomore Alison Ho are seeded eighth in doubles.
The Owls will enter seven players in singles in doubles. Sophomore Katherine Ip will not make the trip as she prepares to compete in the tennis competition in the 17th Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea later this month.
"We were planning on playing Liat and Natalie together because they made the main draw of the All-American and we'd like them to get a tournament in before the All-American, but other than that we will probably be mixing things up in doubles because we have a couple new players this year and we're really trying to figure out our doubles combinations. The Fall is a great time to do that."
Players Mentioned
