COLUMBIA, Mo. – Mizzou Tennis is set to open up its fall campaign at the Mizzou Invitational this weekend as the Tigers travel to Kansas City to host the tournament. The Tigers welcome Penn State, Nebraska and Louisville to the Plaza Tennis Center from Sept. 18-20. Admission is free throughout the weekend.

The Mizzou Invitational will give individual singles players and doubles duos an opportunity to match up with opponents from each school. There will be no dual format. 

SCHEDULE
Friday, Sept. 18
Doubles: Mizzou vs. Penn State; Nebraska vs. Louisville – 9 a.m.
Doubles: Mizzou vs. Louisville; Nebraska vs. Penn State – 10 a.m.
Singles: Mizzou vs. Nebraska; Penn State vs. Louisville – 1 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 19
Doubles: Mizzou vs. Louisville; Penn State vs. Nebraska – 9 a.m.
Doubles: Mizzou vs. Nebraska; Louisville vs. Penn State – 10 a.m.
Singles: Mizzou vs. Penn State; Nebraska vs. Louisville – 1 p.m.

Sunday, Sept. 20
Doubles: Mizzou vs. Penn State; Louisville vs. Nebraska – 9 a.m.
Singles: Mizzou vs. Louisville; Nebraska vs. Penn State – 10 a.m.

OF NOTE
• Mizzou is hosting the Mizzou Invite for the fourth consecutive year.

• The Tigers had a successful Mizzou Invite last season, winning 66 percent of their matches (22-of-33).

• Five returning Tigers won either a singles or doubles Mizzou Invite title in 2014. Bea Santos and Cassidy Spearman clinched singles titles at No. 2 and No. 5 and Kelli Hine, Brittany Lashway and Brianna Lashway each contributed to doubles titles.
• Spearman is seeking a third consecutive singles title at the Mizzou Invite after winning at No. 6 as a freshman in 2013.

• Hine is California bound in early October. She was invited to the 2015 Riviera/ITA All-American Championships, which take place in Pacific Palisades, California. Participants in the tournament include the top returning performers from the 2015 NCAA spring season. Hine came in at No. 125 in the nation and No. 4 in the Central Region when the final ITA women's singles rankings came out last May. She begins action at the Rivera/ITA All-American Championships on Oct. 6 in the qualifying draw. In the first 2015-2016 rankings released on Sept. 15, Hine jumped to No. 89 in the nation, which is a career-high ranking for the senior.

• Mizzou returns 84 percent of its singles wins and 77 percent of its doubles wins from the 2014-15 season. The six returning Tigers have a combined 244 career wins.

• The Tigers have prided themselves on giving back to the community under head coach Sasha Schmid. They dedicated 80 hours of community service together last season and are continuing to do so already in 2015. The team recently participated in the Susan Komen Race for the Cure 5K to raise funds and awareness for breast cancer research and also volunteered at the Central Missouri Food Bank to aid Columbia's hungry.

MATCH NOTES