Women's Tennis to Compete at USTA Bahamas Invitational

Friday, September 14

Albany, Bahamas

ALL DAY

NC State

USTA Bahamas Invitational

Women's Tennis to Compete at USTA Bahamas Invitational

9/13/2018 8:51:00 AM | Women's Tennis

@PackWTennis

The Pack Will Take On LSU and USF in Albany, Bahamas

ALBANY, Bahamas -- The NC State women's tennis team will open up its 2018-19 season by competing at the USTA Bahamas Invitational Sept. 14-16.

NC State will compete with LSU and South Florida over the weekend. The Tigers are returning off a 15-11 season, including a trip to the NCAA Tournament, losing in the first round to No. 24 Tulsa. LSU's doubles team, defending national champions Eden Richardson and Jessica Golovin, are ranked No. 7 in the Oracle ITA Preseason Rankings. The Bulls finished 12-10 last season. In 2017-18, South Florida went on a nine match win streak; the Bulls did not lose a match in March.

The Pack opens up its fall season on Friday in the Bahamas with three singles players and one doubles tandem ranked in the Oracle ITA Preseason Rankings. As previously announced, Anna Rogers and Claudia Wiktorin are tabbed at No. 12 in the doubles rankings, while Adriana Reami, Anna Rogers and Claudia Wiktorin are ranked No. 59, No. 66 and No. 114 respectively.

Outlook from Coach Simon Earnshaw

"The first event for our team in the fall is always one everyone is extremely excited and hyped up for. Particularly this fall, with the opportunity to travel to the Bahamas and it be an event the whole team will be together at. We don't take this for granted and are extremely fortunate to be able to provide our student-athletes with this type of opportunity. Equally, we're not forgetting the circumstances back in the Carolinas the next few days and in the bigger picture it puts everything in perspective.

We are here to take care of business first and foremost, and looking forward to some great competition this week. It's going to be great for Alana Smith, Dylan Cannon, Liz Norman and Natalia Nikolopoulou to see and experience their first action for us and to see how they respond. The returners have put in a large body of work this summer and hopefully that will make a difference. It certainly can't hurt and we are proud of them for their commitment they have shown and impact they have had on the program the past two to three years. We've been training hard in the hot humid conditions since school started but there's no substitute for competition to accelerate the process. Overall, like I said, we're just excited to get back to it and for some excellent tennis in an amazing setting to start out 2018-19. Go Pack!!"

#GoPack | @PackWTennis