Women’s tennis team shows great promise for 2001 season

The Georgia College & State University’s Women’s Tennis team is
looking to improve on a magnificent 2000-2001 season.

After an 18-7 record last year (7-3 in the Peach Belt Conference), the women’s tennis team is looking to improve on their outstanding 13th place finish in the final NCAA II poll. The team has two returning players: senior, three-time All-American, Julia Roudkovskaya and sophomore Kremena Vassileva. Three new members of the team this year are Jodie Lobsiger, from Orbe, Switzerland; Annika Persson, from Frolunda, Sweden; and Karin Ramstrom, from Kil, Sweden. These three freshmen are looking forward to this upcoming season.

“We are really happy with the school, and the coaches here are really great,” said Ramstrom. “I’m looking forward to the challenge this season.”

The freshmen are untested in collegiate tournament play, but Head Tennis Coach Steve Barsby is optimistic.

“Our girls look good in practice, and I can’t wait to see what they can do in tournaments,” said Barsby.

The team leader and standout for this year is Julia Roudkovskaya. Roudkovskaya’s accolades include the All-American award for 3 consecutive years, All-Peach Belt Conference honors three times, Peach Belt Conference Presidential Honor Roll last year, and she won last year’s ITA/Rolex Regional Singles Championship.

A key loss for the team was Senior Lilia Biktyakova. Biktyakova was a four-time All-American, a four-time All-Peach Belt Conference, and played in the National Championship Doubles match with Roudkovskaya for 3 straight years.

The three young freshmen, however, have high hopes about this upcoming season.

“I want to do my best this year; I’m going to try really hard,” said Persson.
“I want to work on a few things from last year, like my serve and
backhand,” said Lobsiger.

“The new girls can learn from Julia. She’s taken them in and is showing
them the ropes,” said Barsby. “I think that we have a great team, but we have to wait until the new girls get some tournament experience under their belts to make sure.”

The women’s first tournament will be the NCAA Women’s South Fall Regional held in Savannah on September 29 through October 1.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 21 2001. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry