ND Womens Tennis: Irish to sweat out tough schedule in Atlanta
By: MARK ZAVODNYIK
Sports Writer
The Notre Dame womens tennis team hopes for some sweet southern hospitality as they travel to Atlanta for the adidas Classic this weekend.
The adidas Classic provides the Irish with an early opportunity to measure themselves against the country's very best. Florida, Duke, Tennessee and Northwestern were all ranked among the nation's top 15 teams last year.
"It'll be good to see how we do against them," Irish coach Jay Louderback said. "All of our players compete really well."
The Irish are excited for the challenge of facing top national teams.
"It's good for us to play against the best teams," Louderback said. "It's the most important tournament of this fall."
Despite the increased strength of competition, many of the Notre Dame tennis players have nothing to worry about. That's because the team has a large talented group of freshmen who are experiencing college tennis for the first time.
"We have so many freshmen, they have nothing to lose, they have nothing to expect," junior Caylan Leslie said.
The Irish are coming off a great performance at last weekend's season opening Prince Cup Invitational. The Irish were led by junior Alicia Salas who battled her way to the finals of the singles bracket. Also, the Irish received strong performances from their five freshmen — Lauren Connelly, Liz Donohue, Kelly Nelson, Jennifer Smith and Kristina Stastny.
The Irish hope to get another stellar performance from Salas, the team's No. 1 singles player. Salas will be facing the best players from the other schools and has a chance to knock off some top-ranked players.
"This is a great weekend for Salas," said Louderback. "She will play a lot of people who are ranked ahead of her."
Louderback is confident Salas will use last weekend's performance as a springboard to play well against the top-flight competition.
"She has a chance. She can hang in with any of them," said Louderback. "I want to see how she reacts."
Salas' teammates are impressed by her early season success.
"Alicia is amazing," said Leslie. "She is a tough girl, tough competitor."
The adidas Classic will be setup with "A" and "B" flights, with the better players in the "A" flight, for both singles and doubles.
All Sports Stories for Friday, September 27, 2002
