Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Open 2002-03 Season This Weekend
September 26, 2002 | Women's Tennis
Sept. 26, 2002
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University women's tennis team begins the 2002-03 season this weekend, hosting the BGSU Invitational. The two-day, five-team event will be held Saturday and Sunday (Sept. 28-29) 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 13th season at the BGSU helm. She and the Falcons will host a tourney field that includes Illinois at Chicago, Indiana State, Wright State and Xavier. Team scores will not be kept, but individual singles and doubles flight champions will be named.
Dean's Falcons lost just one player from last year's team, Devon Bissinger. This year's 10-player squad includes just one senior, Alyson Gabel. Gabel, in her first season on the BGSU campus after transferring from Miami University, led the Falcons in both singles (16) and overall victories (23) a year ago.
The three-member junior class includes Lisa Maloney, Gaby Coello and Jessica Johnson. Maloney played at the top two singles flights a year ago, and went 4-5 in Mid-American Conference singles play. Coello primarily played at the fifth singles flight and the second doubles level.
BGSU's sophomores include Cameron Benjamin, Laura Kokinda, Lindsey Mix and Susan Schoenberger. Schoenberger was in Dean's lineup nearly the entire year, teaming with the departed Bissinger at the top doubles flight while playing the bulk of the time at the third singles level.
A pair of freshmen, Andrea Meister (North Canton, Ohio) and Heidi Romer (Long Grove, Ill.), are slated to make their respective collegiate debuts for Dean's team this weekend.
"We are looking forward to hosting our invite," said Dean. "All four opponents are teams that we will play in the spring season.
"Our ladies are anxious to play, and have been working hard to prepare. Also, I'm excited to see Andrea and Heidi play their first matches. This tourney should be a good way to start our season."
Play is scheduled to begin at 9:00 a.m. each day, and admission is free.
