Nov. 2, 2002
The University of Missouri women's tennis program traded in a hard practice at the Green Tennis Center for a fun-filled workout with local celebrities and fans yesterday in the second annual Mizzou Tiger Tennis Pro-Am. Several well-known Columbians were on hand such as attorney and USTA standout Skip Walther, KOMU meteorologist Mark Edwards, Rock Bridge Tennis Coach Ben Loeb, Missouri Cotton Exchange owner Barb Glenn, former MU tennis star Cortney Wright, Dr. Armondo Favazza, and former Total Person Program Director Chris Favazza, Professor of Journalism Brant Houston, local tennis standout Molly Zitsch, Boone County Bank President Bo Frazier, and many others.
The event was an opportunity for the MU Tennis Team to mingle with their featured guests, and vice-versa. "We're going out of our way to get involved in our community, and put our players in a position to meet people in Columbia's professional society," said Missouri tennis head coach Blake Starkey. "Our kids met a lot of new people today, and everyone had a lot of fun. We will continue to run events like this." Kerry Powell, who is the Wilson's Sporting Goods Representative for the state of Missouri, paired up with Missouri's Britteny Holliday, Mary Barry, and Lucie Ruskova. Ben Loeb has amassed more than 300 career victories and three MSHSAA state championships, most recently this past month's. "I've known Blake for quite a while with our mutual interests in tennis and coaching," said Loeb. "He asked me to be involved, and I was happy to be participate with this group. The new tennis center is beautiful, and this was great."
Walther, an attorney and KFRU radio host, is a former USTA 45 Grasscourt titleholder who took third in last year's championship. He has also been selected to the U.S. Gordon Cup Team. Throughout the day, Walther teamed with Kelly Crull, Kristina Olshanskaya, and Urska Juric. The set between Walther, Juric, Loeb, and Holliday was extremely high-quality tennis.
MU's top two players, Juric and Sevcikova, will participate at the NCAA National Indoors in Dallas, Texas, next Thursday. Juric will participate in the singles championships, and Juric and Sevcikova will play in the doubles championships. Juric qualified by placing in the top two of the 64-field Central Regional Singles Competition held in Tulsa, OK, last week. Juric and Sevcikova won the 64-field doubles competition at the Central Regionals for the second year in a row. MU is the only school in the country to have two players from the same team win their way into both the singles and doubles competition of the NCAA National Indoors. They are also the only doubles team to ever repeat winning the Central Region. After the National Indoors, the Tigers will have some time off until their regular season begins in January 25th at the Green Tennis Center against Southeast Missouri State.