For their first play of the year, the Gators will bring their young and old talent to Durham, N.C., for Duke’s Fab Four Invitational.
Freshman Kourtney Keegan, Australian freshman Belinda Woolcock senior Sofie Oyen and senior Olivia Janowicz (Palm Bay) will all compete as individuals and in doubles Friday through Sunday.
No. 2 Florida is the highest ranked team competing at the invitational. Also competing are No. 11 Alabama, No. 14 Duke, Furman, No. 8 Miami, No. 4 North Carolina, No. 28 Oklahoma State, Ole Miss, No. 17 Texas, No. 3Texas A&M and William & Mary.
While the Intercollegiate Tennis Association sanctioned tournament results won’t affect the team as a whole, results will be used in ITA tennis rankings.
The singles Round of 16 starts Friday at 1:30 p.m. With the highest ITA preseason ranking of any Gator at No. 16, Oyen will face unranked Jana McCord of Texas A&M. No. 75 Janowicz is up against unranked Carmen Bianco of Alabama.
Woolcock is matched against Aggies freshman Anna Mamalat, and Keegan will see the Rebels' El Kamesh on the court.
“This weekend we’ll find out a lot about our freshman obviously against a really quality team,” coach Roland Thornqvist said.
Doubles also start Friday at 10 a.m. The No. 21 duo of Oyen and Woolcock will face Megan McCray and Kayrn Guttormsen of Oklahoma State. This will be the first match Oyen and her Australian teammate play together.
Janowicz and Keegan will also team up for the first time to take on Stephanie Wagner and Kelsey Laurente of Miami.
“She’s going to help us immediately both singles and double,” Thornqvist said of Keegan. “Had great doubles results actually this summer as well. She’s going to be a leader for us down the road too.”
Freshmen aren’t included in ITA’s preseason rankings, but the organization does rank them against each other with a yearly top-10 newcomers list. Woolcock nabbed a No. 7 spot.
But she won’t be the only member of that short list present. Duke freshman and ITA’s No. 2 ranked Chalena Scholl will play along with UNC freshman No. 3 Jamie Loeb.
Follow Erica A. Hernandez on Twitter @EricaAlyssa.
Olivia Janowicz prepares to return a serve in a match against Duke in 2011.
