BATON ROUGE — The LSU women’s tennis team will travel to Birmingham, Ala., to compete in the USTA/ITA Southern Regional Championships, beginning 8:30 a.m. (CT), Friday at the Samford Tennis Center.
The tournament will run through Monday. Saturday’s action will begin at 8:30 a.m., and Sunday’s start time is 9 a.m. The start time for Monday has yet to be determined.
“This is a very big and important tournament,” head coach Tony Minnis said. “The winners of the singles and doubles draws get an automatic entry to the National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships in New York. It’s a great opportunity for our players to get out there and hopefully make a name for themselves.”
Junior Whitney Wolf leads the squad into Birmingham. A native of Pride, La., Wolf was ranked No. 122 in the ITA preseason rankings and has already defeated three nationally-ranked opponents, including No. 20 Kristi Boxx (Ole Miss) and No. 31 Nadja Gilchrist (Georgia).
Sophomore Keri Frankenberger, a Freshman All-SEC performer a year ago, will team with Wolf in doubles this weekend. The duo is currently ranked No. 41 nationally.
Fellow sophomores Ebie Wilson and Kaitlin Burns will be making the trip. Wilson is 3-3 in singles on the season with a pair of wins at the 2010 SEC Coaches’ Classic in September.
Yvette Vlaar leads a talented group of freshmen. The Weert, Netherlands, native is currently 4-3 in singles and is coming off a fine outing at the Wildcat Fall Invitational two weeks ago when she won three of her four matches.
Singles and doubles draws for the regional will be posted on www.ITAtennis.com.