Oct. 27, 2011
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Vanderbilt women’s tennis team will host the 12th annual June Stewart Invitational this weekend as they continue fall tournament play.
The tournament is named after former Vanderbilt Senior Women’s Administrator June Stewart, who worked in the athletic department for 28 years and was one of the most influential women in the SEC by the time she retired in 2000.
One of the few women employed by an athletic department at a major university when she began at Vanderbilt, she was a pioneer for women as the first female assistant sports information director for the Commodores.
Stewart was inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame in 1997, having served on the executive board as the first-ever female leader of the group. She also served on the NCAA Women’s Basketball Committee and spent three years on the SEC Executive Committee.
Competing for Vanderbilt in the 2011 Invitational will be freshmen Ashleigh Antal and Marie Casares, sophomore Lauren Mira, and senior Megan Gornet.
“It’ll be a really good weekend for the freshmen,” said head coach Geoff Macdonald. “Just looking forward to match play and seeing how many improvements been made in practice and whether people are beginning to add some things to their game.”
The Commodores have had a successful fall so far. Senior Jackie Wu won the USTA/ITA Ohio Valley Regionals last weekend at Memphis and will be on her way to New York next week for the National Indoors, while Casares won her first college tournament flight at the Seminole Invitational to start the month.
“It’ll be exciting, and it’ll be a good atmosphere this weekend with people coming by, hopefully more people will come by to watch,” said Macdonald.
Play begins Friday morning at 9a.m. and will continue Saturday and Sunday.
2011 Competing Teams
Miami OH
Memphis
MTSU
Lipscomb
Belmont
UNC Asheville
Vanderbilt
