Jan. 6, 2010
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – With the college tennis season right around the corner, the Vanderbilt women’s tennis team has once again been mentioned among the nation’s top-25 teams to start the season. The Commodores enter the 2010 season ranked 22nd in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association preseason poll.
In addition to the team rankings, the `Dores are well represented in the singles and doubles rankings. For the second straight year, VU has at least four players ranked in the ITA preseason singles poll.
Returning NCAA singles qualifier, Jackie Wu, is once again the top-ranked Commodore in singles, entering the spring ranked No. 29 while senior Catherine Newman and sophomore Chelsea Preeg are ranked 31st and 32nd respectively.
After being ranked in doubles most of last year, sophomore Heather Steinbauer enters the spring ranked in both singles and doubles. The Woodlands, Texas native will start the season ranked No. 97 in singles and No. 25 in doubles, pairing with Erica Robertson. It marks the first time in Steinbauer’s young career that she has been ranked in singles.
Robertson and Steinbauer are coming off an impressive fall season in doubles, where they posted a 9-2 mark en route to winning doubles flight championships at the Kentucky Invitational and ITA Ohio Valley Regional. The sophomore tandem played two matches at the ITA National Indoor Championships before bowing out to the nation’s second-ranked duo of Mari Andersson and Jana Juricova of California.
VU’s duo of Preeg and Wu enter the spring campaign ranked 40th in doubles after winning a team-best 14 matches during the fall.
The 22nd-ranked Commodores will open the 2010 season in less than two weeks when they travel to Evanston, Ill., to partake in the Northwestern Invitational on Jan. 15-17.