RENO, Nev. The University of Nevada’s women’s tennis team will open the 2006-07 season this weekend at the Bulldog Classic in Fresno, Calif.
Fresno State will host the seven-team event Friday-Sunday, Sept. 22-24. Teams playing in this year’s Bulldog Classic include 20th-ranked Fresno State, 60th-ranked Sacramento State, Pacific, San Jose State, Santa Clara, Fresno Pacific and Nevada.
Second-year head coach Sylvain Malroux will take seven players to Fresno, led by sophomore Caroline Bailly who is the top seeded player in the singles tournament. Bailly is ranked 103rd in the preseason Intercollegiate Tennis Rankings and is the first Wolf Pack player to be ranked in the preseason since 2002. A 2006 first-team All-WAC honoree, Bailly finished sixth in the Nevada single-season record book for victories with a 17-5 individual record one year ago.
Also competing in Fresno for Nevada are senior Bach-Lan Pham, junior Audrey Bardot, sophomore Masako Horino and freshmen Alice Hall, Maria Mizyuk and Laetitia Tan.
Last season, Nevada turned in the second-most victories in school history, compiling a 14-10 dual-meet record after winning just three matches the previous year. The Wolf Pack advanced to the semifinals of the 2006 WAC Championships and had three student-athletes named to the All-WAC teams, paced by Bailly, who earned first-team singles honors and second-team doubles accolades in 2005-06.
“This tournament should be a good opportunity for us to start this new season where our goals are to return to the rankings and reach the top of the conference,” Malroux said. “With five new players on the team, I am very excited to see them compete after three very hard weeks of practice. They have been responding very well to training, and I am looking forward to seeing them play. We have some good chances to represent the University of Nevada well in doubles and singles.”
Following this weekend’s tournament, Bailly will travel to UCLA for the prequalifying rounds of the 2006 Riviera/ITA Women’s All-American Championships on Sept. 30-Oct. 1. A total of eight singles players and four doubles team will advance to the qualifying rounds on Oct. 3-4. The main draw of the All-American Championships, which is one of the four Grand Slam events in collegiate women’s tennis, will be held Oct. 5-8 at the Riviera Tennis Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif.
A complete recap of all of the Wolf Pack women’s tennis action will be available at www.nevadawolfpack.com.
