YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) —The Eastern Michigan University women's tennis team will begin its fall season this weekend when it travels to Bowling Green State University for the BGSU Invitational. The two-day, 10-team event will be held Saturday and Sunday (Sept. 19-20) at Keefe Courts on the BGSU campus.
Ryan Ray returns for his fourth campaign as head coach for the Eagles. His squad brings back five players from last year's young team, which finished 5-15 (2-7 MAC). Junior Xu Chang (, China) Beijingwill be the most tenured Eagle. Last season she posted an overall record of 8-12, including going 5-4 in her last nine matches of the season. Sophomore Miriam Westerink (Rheden, The Netherlands) also had a solid 2008-09 season as she finished with nine victories on the season.
The eight-player roster is sophomore-loaded with five second year player. The two newcomers, Celine Donnet (Hemiksem, Belgium) and Julia Breuss (Dornbirn, Austria), will see their first action as Eagles, with each player competing in singles flight match-ups.
Play will begin at approximately 9 a.m. each day. The tournament features other Mid-American Conference foes Akron University and Bowling Green, as well as Cincinnati, Cleveland State, Detroit, IPFW, IUPUI, Xavier and Youngstown State. Team scores will not be kept, but individual champions will be crowned at each of the nine singles and four doubles flights.
EMU's fall schedule includes three more invitationals. The team will travel to Minnesota for the Gopher Invitational Sept. 25-27, then to U-M for the Wolverine Invitational Oct. 2-4 and end the fall season with an Oct. 22-24 trip to the ITA Midwest Regional. The winter season begins on Jan. 17, with a match at Detroit.
