Sept. 25, 2009

Las Vegas - The University of Missouri Women's Tennis team opens its 2009 fall season this weekend at the Fertitta Tennis Complex on the campus of University of Nevada Las Vegas. Joining the Tigers in the tournament will be teams from UNLV, Texas, New Mexico State, and Northern Arizona.

Featuring five flights of singles and four flights of doubles, the tournament will have three rounds of singles and two rounds of doubles play. Action begins this afternoon at Noon with the opening rounds of singles and doubles. Missouri will field eight singles players and three doubles teams.

The team is looking forward to facing both competitive play, and the time they will get to spend together on the road.

"UNLV has a great tennis venue where we'll be playing," Head Coach Blake Starkey said. "There's also a professional tournament going on at the same time, and we're hoping to take that in for a bit. It will be a good chance to see where we are, what we're doing well and what we need to improve on."

Following competition at the UNLV Invite, Missouri will open their home schedule on Friday, Oct. 2, as they host the "Ace for a Cure" tournament. The tournament will extend through Sunday, Oct. 4 and take place at the Green Tennis Center in Columbia.