Jan. 16, 2009

Fort Myers, FLA. – The Missouri women's tennis team traveled down south to begin their spring tennis campaign at the Florida Golf Coast Invite/Johan Kriek Tennis Classic. The four-day event began today (Friday, Jan. 19) at 11:00 a.m. EST. Missouri competed against three different schools on the day, including fall opponent, Illinois. Throughout the day several duals took place as teams battled on the court in singles or doubles action.

The Tigers started the day with a romping of host-school Florida Golf Coast as the Missouri ladies racked up all seven individual victories. After a 7-0 defeat over FGCU the MU women went on to record a 5-2 victory over Stetson. Freshmen newcomer Danielle Day made an impression in her Tiger debut as she went undefeated on the day beating her opponent from FGCU as well as her Stetson opponent.

In their third dual of the day the Tigers faced the University of Illinois from the Big Ten conference in doubles competition. After three hard fought battles the Illini took the match but Mizzou coach Blake Starkey knows he has nothing to be disappointed about. “Our girls fought tough, they played hard,” said Starkey. “Today was a really good day and a great way to open our spring season.”

The Johan Kriek Tennis Classic play will continue tomorrow (Jan. 17) in Fort Myers. Mizzou will compete in four matches including doubles action versus the University of Southern Florida, Stetson and UGCF before facing Akron in singles action. Play begins at 9:00 a.m. EST with MU's last beginning at match at 3:00 p.m. EST.