Oct. 22, 2009

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The Memphis women's tennis team will begin play at the ITA Ohio Valley Regional today on the campus of the University of Cincinnati. All seven Memphis Lady Tigers will compete at the event. Seniors Amanda Brown, Ashley Murdock and Marjorie Ondeck, along with freshman Courtney Collins will compete in the main singles draw, while senior Dara Toulch and freshmen Andrea Arques-Garcia and Kelly Gray compete in the qualifying draw for singles.

In doubles, the Memphis pairs of Murdock and Collins, Arques-Garcia and Gray, along with Brown and Toulch, will all compete in the open doubles draw.

"We have had a good couple of weeks of practice since our last tournament," said Memphis head coach Lee Taylor Walker. "We feel really good about our team right now and we are ready to see what we can do at regionals. Last year Marjorie (Ondeck) and Ashley (Murdock) were able to advance to the semifinals of doubles at regionals so we hope that shows our team what we are capable of doing."

Arques-Garcia opens singles play against Louisville's Gabi Duncan at 10 a.m. Duncan, a sophomore for the Cardinals, went 1-4 in tournament play last season. Arques-Garcia is in her first season with the Lady Tigers. The native of Alicante, Spain, was ranked as the No. 90 women's tennis netter in all of Spain as an 18-year-old. The winner of the match will play Vanderbilt's Erica Robertson at 11:15 a.m.

Toulch, a native of Montreal, Quebec, will begin singles play against Louisville's Kaysara Mandry at 10 a.m.. Toulch competed at the No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6 singles positions for the Lady Tigers last season. Mandry is a freshman for the Louisville squad. The winner of the match will play Xavier's Kelsey Kinnard at 11:30 a.m.

Kelly Gray will begin the tournament with a match against Middle Tennessee's Taylor Coffey at 10 a.m.. Gray is a freshman from Murfreesboro, Tenn., she was rated as the 41st best singles netter in the Southeast Region coming out of Siegel High School. Coffey, competed at the No. 3 and No. 4 spots for the Blue Raiders last season. The winner of the match will face-off with Louisville's Louise Noe at 11:30 a.m.

Ondeck will open play in the main singles draw against Vanderbilt's Hannah Blatt. Blatt competed at the No. 6 spot for the Commodores last season. Vanderbilt finished last season as the No. 22 team in the nation. Ondeck, a native of Monroe, Ct., competed at the No. 1 and No. 2 spot for the Lady Tigers last season.

Murdock, a two-time All-C-USA second team selection, will face-off with Indiana's Katya Zapadalova at 2:30 p.m., on Fri., Oct. 23. Murdock competed at the No. 1 and No. 2 spots for the U of M last season. Zapadalova went 8-16 at the No. 1 position for the Hoosiers. Indiana finished last season as the No. 48 team in the nation.

Collins, rated the 49th-best recruit by tennisrecruiting.net coming out high school, opens regionals against Kentucky's Lauren Meier at 1 p.m., on Fri., Oct. 23. Meier competed at the No. 3 and No. 4 slots for the Wildcats last year. Kentucky finished last reason ranked No. 25 in the country.

Brown, a native of Whitby, Ontario, will face-off with East Tennessee State's Kelly Holtzhausan on Fri., Oct. 23 at 4:30 p.m. Brown played the No. 3, No.4, No. 5 and No. 6 spots for the Lady Tigers last year. Holtzhausan recently transfered to ETSU from Tennessee Tech, where she played the No. 1 position.

In doubles, Toulch and Brown will begin play against Middle Tennessee's Natalie Araya and Marietta Bigus at 2 p.m., on Thur., Oct. 22.

Gray and Arques- Garcia will face-off with the winner of a match between Middle Tennessee's Carla Nava and Yuri Nomoto and Purdue's Anna Dushkina and Remi Martin at 4:30 p.m., on Thur., Oct. 22.

Murdock and Collins will face Wright State's Marsha Peresetski and Kenisha Webb in the first round at 3:15 p.m., on Thursday. Peresetski and Webb competed at the No. 1 doubles spot last season for Wright State.