Clemson Women’s Tennis To Open Spring Season

Jan. 26, 2007

CLEMSON, SC – The Clemson women’s tennis team will open its 2007 spring season this weekend as the Tigers will play host to the College of Charleston and South Florida at the Clemson Indoor Tennis Center. Clemson enters the first weekend of play with the #17 national ranking, while South Florida is ranked 33rd in the preseason poll. The Tigers will take on the Cougars of the College of Charleston on Saturday at 11:00 am, while they will face the Bulls on Sunday at 12:00 pm.

Saturday’s match will be the 19th meeting between Clemson and the College of Charleston with the Tigers leading by a dominate 17-1 margin. The Tigers swept all seven flights in last year’s season-opening match for their 10h win over the Cougars in the last 11 years.

Clemson’s match against South Florida will also be the 19th meeting in history between the two schools, with the Tigers holding a 12-6 advantage in the series score. The teams last met during the 2004 season when Clemson defeated the Bulls, 5-0, at the Hoke Sloan Tennis Center.

Lone senior Maria Brito leads a Tiger squad that features five returning letterwinners including three upper classmen. Carol Salge begins her third year with the Clemson program after rising to the number one position late last season, while junior Kathryn Gerber enters her second season as a Tiger after transferring from West Virginia University. Alexandra Luc and Federica van Adrichem are then in their sophomore seasons at Clemson with both performing well in their rookie campaigns.

Head Coach Darrell Jernigan have brought in a five-member class for the 2007 spring season that will give Clemson one its most talented and deep teams in recent years. Selma Babic and Ina Hadziselimovic join the Tigers from Bosnia, where both were highly ranked, while Croatian native and highly touted recruit Ani Mijacika also begins her first season at Clemson. Estefania Balda enrolled at school for the spring semester and gives Harris an extremely talented player from Ecuador. Samantha Eppelsheimer, a walk-on from Mount Pleasant, SC, rounds out the 2006-07 class.