Wake Forest Athletics
Women's Tennis to Open Season Against Winthrop Sunday
1/21/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Jan. 21, 2011
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - The Wake Forest women's tennis team will begin its first dual match season under head coach Jeff Wyshner when it takes on Winthrop on Sunday, January 23 at noon at the Indoor Tennis Center.
All children 14 and younger attending the match will receive a free Wake Forest logo tennis ball.
The Deacons start the year ranked No. 52 and will not have an easy opening match in No. 65 Winthrop, as the Eagles are the three-time defending Big South champions and have started the season 2-0 after defeating Hampton and Wofford. They will face No. 6 North Carolina on Saturday before traveling to Winston-Salem.
"They're scary good; that's probably the best way to describe them. So much for having a nice little warm-up match," said Wyshner. "They're 13 spots behind us in the rankings, and usually for a mid-major that's ranked that high, they'd be even higher if they had as many opportunities to play higher-ranked teams like we get in our conference schedule. It will be their fourth match and our first, and they're going to be gunning for us on Sunday."
Sunday's match will be Wyshner's first at the helm of the Demon Deacons after taking over as head coach in August. He previously served as the head women's tennis coach at Akron from 2006-10, leading the Zips to a 19-3 record and a second-place finish in the Mid-American Conference in 2010. Earlier in his career, Wyshner spent time as the men's and women's tennis coach at Fairfield University and the women's tennis coach at Manhattan College.
"I was so excited about coming to Wake Forest in August, but quite honestly at this point I love it even more," said Wyshner. "The place has amazed me tremendously with what it offers student-athletes, and obviously with what we can do in the tennis program for tennis student-athletes. Certainly we're also very excited about the addition of the Winston-Salem Open and the new facility that we've broken ground on."
The Demon Deacons played in four tournaments in the fall season, finding the most success in their home event, the Wake Forest Invitational, which was held in November and involved players from Tennessee, NC State, LSU and Furman. Kathryn Talbert took the WFU Invite title, which incorporated both singles and doubles results, and Martina Pavelec was close behind in third place.
"We got a little bit of a slow start (this fall). I got here as late as I did, and we didn't have as busy of a fall schedule as I would have liked," said Wyshner. "I think we played alright, but we got to know each other most importantly. When we started up this January, it felt like we were ready to go - we weren't in that adjustment period of getting to know each other. I feel like our workload now is much better than we had through the fall season."
The Deacons' will hope to find success in doubles this spring as the team of Talbert and TCU-transfer Kayla Duncan came in at No. 14 in the initial ITA doubles rankings of 2011. Duncan and Talbert are the highest-ranked Wake Forest doubles team since 2002 and went a perfect 4-0 in fall play, including a win over Sandhya Nagaraj and Sanaa Bhambri (NC State) who are currently ranked No. 7 in the nation.
Duncan, a Winston-Salem native, reached the second round of the 2010 NCAA Doubles Championship while playing for the Horned Frogs, and Talbert also competed in the 2010 NCAA Doubles tournament with former partner Sasha Kulikova ('10).
"I'm not so sure it was such a smart thing on my part to take so long to put them together," joked Wyshner. "We knew that they had the potential to be a really good team. Kayla is very aggressive at the net and has great instincts, and Kathryn is so aggressive off the baseline. Both of them had different partners last year and were nationally ranked doubles players. They got a great win over the No. 7 team in the country in our home tournament. It will be interesting to see how they do now that there will be a target on their backs."
Junior Martina Pavelec is expected to occupy the top spot in the Wake Forest singles lineup this season after coming off of a strong year in 2010. The Stuttgart, Germany native received All-ACC honors and was named the ITA Player to Watch for the Carolina Region, despite only playing during the second half of the dual match season. She currently sits in the No. 62 spot in the ITA singles rankings.
"I'm excited to see (Pavelec) get after it this spring," said Wyshner. "I think in the fall she was trying to make a decision in her mind of whether this was her senior year or her junior year. Now we're optimistic that she's going to get into grad school and stay with us for one more year."
"With that decision behind her, I see more conviction in her on the court. I'm excited about what I've seen in practice for the first week and a half. I think she'll have an even better spring than she did last semester, now that she's able to play the entire semester and is not facing those tough life decisions."
The Deacs have had two additions since the 2010 season came to a close. Duncan, junior and two-time All-Mountain West selection, will immediately step into top half of the singles lineup. Brigita Bercyte, a Brooklyn, N.Y. native with ITF junior circuit experience, enrolled as a freshman in January and will provide Wake with much-needed depth.
"Brigit will make an immediate impact in our doubles lineup. She looks like a junior or a senior on the doubles court," said Wyshner. "In singles, it's a little bit of a work-in-progress - an 18-year-old has a little bit of a harder time competing with a 20 or 21-year-old. There's a little more wisdom that comes with that two or three years of experience. We do think she'll have an impact towards the bottom of our singles lineup. She's incredibly athletic and she hits the ball beautifully. We're very excited to have her here and she's going to be a great player for us over the next four years."
The Demon Deacons will be looking to rebound from a down year in 2010 where they finished 11-14 and missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2003.
"We're certainly looking to work our way back into the top 40, which would get us into the NCAA tournament. That's probably our biggest goal," said Wyshner. "The ACC schedule is super tough. There are six teams in the top 15 in the country there, and we also play two more top 15 teams out of conference, so we do play one of the toughest schedules."
"We have a lot of matches against teams ranked between 30th and 60th in the country, and they are going to be probably the most important part of our schedule because if we're ready to go in those matches, we should be able to find our way into the top 35 in the country, make the NCAAs and take a step forward."
Players Mentioned
