Sooners travel to South Carolina, California this weekend

NORMAN -- The Oklahoma women's tennis team travels to Columbia, S.C., for the South Carolina Fall Invitational for its second tournament of the fall while sophomore Lily Miyazaki heads to the prestigious ITA Riviera/All-American Championships in Pacific Palisades, Calif., this weekend.

Miyazaki finished No. 108 in singles last season with a record of 15-5. She will play her first match of the fall at Pepperdine University in the qualifying rounds of the ITA Rivera/All-American Championships. The event runs through Sunday, Oct. 11.

Main draw singles semifinalists, main draw doubles finalists and main draw consolation champions will receive automatic entry into the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships in November in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

“It's very selective on the women's side as to who gets in. There's no easy matches,” head coach Dave Mullins said. “(Lily) needs to be ready to go from the first point on Saturday when she plays. It just depends on her draw. They're all tough matches.”

After a successful debut season, Mullins expects a lot from his No. 1 singles player.

“Lily is good enough to win a ton of matches out there and make it to the main draw. She's more than capable. It's just going to come down to match-ups and physicality, as well,” Mullins said. “She could have an easy match when someone has a long match, so just taking advantage of that. We can only control what we can control.”

The rest of the Sooners will participate in the South Carolina Invite, held Friday through Sunday at the USC Field House. The field includes: Arkansas, North Florida, South Carolina, UNC – Wilmington and William & Mary. Every team in the field made the NCAA Tournament a year ago with four finishing the year ranked in the top 50 by the ITA.

“The South Carolina tournament will be a great experience and test for our girls,” assistant coach Boomer Saia said. I am looking to see if our team can implement the different aspects we worked on in practice,” Saia said. “I am excited to see the girls compete again and hope we take another step forward.”

Last weekend, the Sooners finished 10-17 in singles play and 7-3 in doubles play. The best finish of the weekend came from sophomore Malene Stripp and Ann Pepper, who were the runners-up in their doubles bracket at the OU Invite.