OU Womens Tennis Team Selected For National Indoor Playoff

Sooners are one of four central region teams selected in inaugural playoff

The University of Oklahoma women's tennis program made history this week by becoming the first squad to be chosen to participate in a prestigious ITA team event. The Sooners will be one of four teams from the Central Region competing in the inaugural ITA National Team Indoor playoffs on Saturday, Nov. 1, at the Eccles Tennis Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. BYU, New Mexico and Denver are the others.

Saturday's action will pit OU against New Mexico and BYU against Denver. Winners of both duals will play for the right to compete in the 2003 ITA National Team Indoor Tournament to be played in February. The playoff selection was based on the performances of the 26 teams that competed in the ITA Women's Central Regional Championships last weekend.

"We are extremely honored to be selected for the ITA Indoor Playoffs," said Head Coach Mark Johnson. "For this to be the first year with a playoff format and for OU to be selected speaks highly of our program and players. I'm very proud of how each player performed last week and we are looking forward to competing this weekend."

Last weekend senior Anda Perianu (Braila,Romania) captured the singles title and teamed with Heather Saluri (Des Moines, Iowa) to reach the semi-finals of doubles at the regional championship. Perianu's singles title win automatically qualified her for the 32 player National Indoor Tournament to be played in Ann Arbor, Mich., Nov. 6-9. In addition, two other Sooners, freshman Irina Lykina (Kazan, Russia) and Amanda Pratzel (St. Louis, Mo.) won three rounds of qualifying matches to make the 64 player main draw.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

OU Womens Tennis Team Selected For National Indoor Playoff

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