Jan. 24, 2011

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - After dropping their season opener in a close 4-3 to University of Nevada Reno, the Lady Lions are set to travel across town to Westwood for a tough match up against the UCLA Bruins on Wednesday Jan 26th. The Bruins are ranked 5th in the nation in a preseason ITA rankings and will be a competitive match for the Lions and a good early season challenge. Then on Friday the Lions will come back home to host no. 49 ranked University of Arizona at 1pm on Jan 28.

The women will be lead by the combined forces of three seniors this season, Estelle LaPorte, Shauna Morgan and Melissa Valenzuela. LaPorte returns for her senior season after earning honorable mention for singles at the conference tournament last spring. After being injured for a portion of the 2010 season, senior Shuana Morgan comes back ready for competition and is a force in both singles and doubles. Finally senior Melissa Valenzuela will also provide experience in both singles and doubles for the Lions. The Lions will also look to junior Elisaveta Pironkova and RS freshman Adriana Radinovic as versatile players across the board.

The Lady Lions also welcome five new comers to their roster including transfer from University of Washington Ashley Anderson, transfer from UC Irvine April Bisharat, and freshmen Miya Jin, Claudia Razzeto and Reka Rohonvi. Already these fresh faces have had a competitive impact in the fall preseason tournaments for the Lions and have a lot of potential to continue contributing throughout the spring. Bisharat already earned her first win against University of Nevada Reno this past weekend playing the number one position for the Lions. Bisharat took Okhremchuk to three sets 3-6, 7-6, 10-4 to earn the win for the Lions. On courts five and six, freshman Miya Jin and Reka Rohonyi also earned the Lions wins and points for the day in their opening collegiate matches.

The UCLA Bruins are currently ranked in the top five in the nation and have a strong roster of top ranked players including: Dolehide no. 36 in singles, Hickey no. 57 singles; Jones/Montez no.17 doubles, Dolehide/Remynse no.57 doubles and Smyth/Stubbe no.68 doubles. With this stacked roster, the Lions will have their hands full, but gain some good early competitive experience. University of Arizona's Lacey Smyth also holds a ranking at no. 68 in ITA National rankings and will be a force in Friday's match up.