Sept. 14, 2004

The 2004-05 Illinois women's tennis team gets into action for the first time this weekend when it journeys to Kalamazoo, Mich., to compete in the Bronco Invitational, hosted by Western Michigan.

It's a return trip for the Fighting Illini. Last year, Coach Sujay Lama's squad was scheduled to compete at William & Mary in Virginia to open the season, but the threat of severe weather from Hurricane Isabel caused the event to be cancelled. Instead, Illinois competed at Western Michigan and fared very well. Jennifer McGaffigan and Isabel Jarosz won the Flight A and B singles brackets, respectively; along the way the Illini went 22-10 in singles matches and 13-3 in doubles contests.

This year Illinois will look for similar results, but will have to compete without four members of last year's team: McGaffigan, the program's all-time winningest player, Tiffany Eklov and Eva Choe, all of whom exhausted their eligibility, as well as Jarosz, who elected not to come back for her sophomore season with the Orange and Blue.

The Fighting Illini will be led by senior Cynthya Goulet, who was listed at No. 110 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) pre-season rankings, which came out last week. Goulet went 26-9 a year ago in singles, and teamed with McGaffigan to post a 28-10 doubles mark and earn an NCAA Tournament berth last spring. Goulet and sophomore Emily Wang were ranked No. 44 in doubles last week by the ITA.

Goulet and Wang will be joined by senior Leila Cehajic, juniors Brianna Knue and Pavlina Akritas and four freshmen, Elizabeth Dolan, Macall Harkins, Momei Qu and Anastasia Sokolova.

The Illinois players will be going up against competitors from Big Ten foe Indiana, as well as from Marquette, Ball State, Eastern Michigan, Illinois-Chicago and the host Broncos.

"We are excited to get the season started this weekend at the Broncos Invitational," said Lama, who is beginning his seventh season with Illinois. "We have a young, but talented group this year. Everyone has worked hard during the pre-season workouts. The players are very eager to compete and measure their games with some of the best players in the Midwest. This will also be an opportunity to evaluate where they are and get a clear idea on what they need to work on. Our goal is to have fun and improve with each match."

The tournament runs Friday through Sunday. Results will be posted on the internet at www.fightingillini.com.