ABILENE - The ACU women's tennis team plays its annual home tournament with the ACU Invite taking place Friday-Sunday at the Judi and Cecil Eager Tennis Pavilion.
The 11-team event includes players from UTSA, Louisiana Tech, Texas Tech, Texas State, SMU, Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston, UT Arlington, New Mexico State and Tarleton State.
"It's going to be a really solid tournament," ACU head coach
Bryan Rainwater said. "You've got teams from the Big 12, the ACC, the Southland and Conference USA. Really, really good competition overall."
In the full draws, participants will get three doubles matches and three singles matches. Play is expected to start at 9 a.m. each day.
ACU started its fall season with two days of competition in the ASU Slamfest at Angelo State. Rainwater said that event helped knock the rust off to prepare for this weekend.
"I've been preaching to the girls all week there's nowhere to hide. You're going to have a dog fight. Everywhere you're going to play somebody that's really good, who might whoop up on you which I think is awesome. We need those matches to see where we're at. It's great to have our peers, but also the bigger schools to get us tested."
The Wildcats' roster of seven players is led by four seniors:
Maria Cascos,
Angela Del Campo,
Alice Klinteby, and
Masha Vrsalovic. Sophomore
Jess Board also returns, and freshmen
Victoria Correa and
Elsa Luthar are new to the team.
"The seniors have taken both of our freshmen under their wings. It looks like they've meshed in already in these first few weeks which is really, really good. That is a testament to having four seniors on your team and not having to be teaching everything from week one."
