Jayhawks open season at Rice Invitational

LAWRENCE, Kan. – The Kansas women’s tennis team will travel to Houston, Texas to kick off its fall season at the Rice Invitational Friday to Sunday.
 
Coming off a second-consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance under head coach Todd Chapman, five of the eight Jayhawks will make the trip for the season-opening tournament. They include, junior Janet Koch, sophomores Tatiana Nikolaeva and Maria Toran Ribes, redshirt freshman Amber Policare and true freshman Carla Pons Martorell.
 
“I’m excited to see where we’re at right now,” said head coach Todd Chapman. “I believe it will be a solid tournament for the girls to get the competition they need. We always hope to put them in tough events to put them in tough situations so we can learn what we need to work on.
 
“That’s how we view the fall, as a developmental time and a time to see what we need to work on. I think this tournament will definitely give us an opportunity to do that.”
 
After only competing against each other for the past few weeks, the Jayhawks will face the host Rice, Big 12 Conference opponent Oklahoma, as well as South Florida, North Texas, SMU, Houston, UT-Arlington, UT-San Antonio, Texas State and Sam Houston State.
 
“The girls have worked hard the last four or five weeks,” said Chapman. “I’m sure they’re excited to quit practicing and get to go play and we’re excited to watch them.”
 
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