Feb. 24, 2006

Columbia, Mo. - The University of Missouri women's tennis team hosts Montana State and Minnesota this weekend at the Green Tennis Center. The Tigers will face Montana State on Friday at 3 p.m. and Minnesota on Sunday at 9 a.m. Montana State and Minnesota will play each other on Saturday at 2 p.m.

The matches will provide the Tigers relief from a challenging early-season Big 12 schedule. Mizzou is currently 0-2 in the conference after losing to then-No. 61 Oklahoma and No. 36 Nebraska. The conference matches will not get any easier, as the Tigers host No. 65 Texas Tech on March 4 and No. 16 Baylor on March 11.

Tiger Notes

Last Time Out Last Saturday (Feb. 18) the Tigers fell to No. 36 Nebraska 5-2 in Columbia. Mizzou earned victories at the No. 3 and No. 6 singles spots. At the No. 3 position, Tiger junior Yelena Olshanskaya defeated Nebraska's Vanessa Heute 1-6, 6-2, 7-6 (1). Junior Amanda Pratzel picked up a win at the No. 6 singles spot.

Amanda Pratzel is 5-1 Playing in the No. 3, No. 4, No. 5, and No. 6 singles spots, Tiger junior Amanda Pratzel is currently 5-1 on the spring. In the No. 6 position, Pratzel is 2-0 with victories over Oklahoma's Brittany Baldy and Nebraska's Ewelina Skaza. Pratzel, a St. Louis native, played for Oklahoma her freshman and sophomore seasons, and played at Missouri State in the fall.

Kraftova Suffers First Loss of the Season Last Saturday, Tiger senior Hana Kraftova lost to Nebraska's then-No. 36 Kim Hartmann 6-4, 6-2. Hartmann handed Kraftova her first loss in singles play this season, dropping her record to 4-1. The most impressive of Kraftova's four wins came against Oklahoma's then-No. 73 Gabby Baker on Feb. 13. Kraftova will now get set to face two tough opponents this weekend.

Tiger Opponents

About Montana State Montana State enters Friday's match with a 4-5 record on the season. In the Bobcats' most recent match, they fell to Northern Arizona 4-3 in the Big Sky Conference opener. Montana State is led by sophomore Nuria Lozano at the No. 1 singles position. In her last match, Lozano defeated Northern Arizona's Susan McClelland 6-2, 7-6. This is the first meeting ever between the two schools in women's tennis.

About Minnesota The Golden Gophers enter the weekend at 2-4 overall and 0-1 in the Big Ten. In their last match, the Gophers picked up their second win of the season, defeating Dartmouth 4-3 in Minneapolis. In the match, No. 1 singles player Nischela Reddy dominated Dartmouth's Lindsay Winingham 6-0, 6-0. Earlier in the season, Reddy fell to Oklahoma's then-No. 73 Gabby Baker 6-1, 6-3. In the series, Minnesota leads 8-6, with the Tigers winning last year's match 4-3 in Minneapolis.

Looking Ahead After this weekend's matches, the Tigers will face Big 12 foe Texas Tech at noon on Saturday, March 4 in Columbia. All home matches are held at the Green Tennis Center and are open to the public.