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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Women's Tennis Begins 2001-02 Season
September 26, 2001 | Women's Tennis
Sept. 26, 2001
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University women's tennis team begins the 2001-02 season this weekend, hosting the BGSU Invitational. The two-day, five-team event will be held Saturday and Sunday (Sept. 29-30) at Keefe Courts on the BGSU campus.
Keefe Courts are located off Stadium Drive, directly east of (behind) the BGSU Ice Arena and west of the Cochrane Field soccer complex.
Head coach Penny Dean enters her 12th season at the BGSU helm. She and the Falcons will host a tourney field that includes Illinois at Chicago, Indiana State, Northern Iowa and Wright State. Team scores will not be kept, but individual singles and doubles flight champions will be named.
Dean has a youthful squad, with one senior and one junior on the nine-player roster. The senior, Devon Bissinger, is coming off an injury-plagued season, while the junior, Alyson Gabel, is new to the Falcon program after transferring from Mid-American Conference member Miami. Gabel's brothers, Ryan and Brandon, each earned four letters for the BGSU men's tennis team.
Three sophomores -- Gaby Coello, Jessica Johnson and Lisa Maloney -- join four freshmen to round out the squad. The freshmen are Cameron Benjamin, Laura Kokinda, Lindsey Mix and Susan Schoenberger. Mix is the younger sister of former Falcon Erika Mix.
"This should be an entertaining tournament," said Dean. "We have a lot of different teams from last year. Only UIC was in our tournament a year ago, and we have never played Northern Iowa or Wright State in a dual match.
"Also, our own team has quite a few new faces. It makes for a lot of unknowns.
"We are looking forward to the tourney, though, as I'm sure all the teams are. It should be a good opportunity for each player to play a lot of matches and get some early-season experience.
"We have five new players and only four returnees, so we will have new faces in the lineup. The team's work ethic has been outstanding over the past few weeks, and they are looking forward to venturing out and playing some other people.
"Based upon past history, this tournament features five schools that are at a similar level of play, so it should make for a very competitive weekend.
"It will be very interesting to see how our doubles teams fare. We will have all new combinations, and we will probably switch them around a great deal during the fall."
Dean may enter the weekend with a freshman -- Schoenberger -- playing at both the top singles and doubles flights.
"It can be difficult to make the transition from high school tennis to the collegiate game, much less to play at the top flight right away," said Dean. "But, Susan is a mentally-tough player, and I think she will be able to accept the challenge."
Play is scheduled to begin at 9:00 a.m. each day, and admission is free.
