Feb. 20, 2003

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The University of Memphis women's tennis team (4-2 overall) started the season off with its first-ever nationally-ranked doubles duo. Head Coach Charlotte Peterson and her Lady Tigers have added another school-first with the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's (ITA) poll released this week. For the first time in school history, the Lady Tigers have earned a national ranking from the sport's sanctioning body, breaking into the national polls tied for 75th place on the rankings list.

"I knew coming into this year that I had a deep team," Peterson said. "Obviously, I'm extremely proud of these girls. We are a deeper and stronger team this year than we were last year and we are obviously seeing that pay dividends now."

Peterson, who is in her 28th year as the head coach of the Lady Tigers knows a bit about the program she is guiding. A former walk-on who lettered three years, Peterson became just the second female head coach and the fourth overall in U of M history to post her 300th career win last season. Also an instructor in the university's physical education department, Peterson served as an assistant coach for her alma mater from 1974-1975 and assumed the helm of the program in 1975.

Memphis started this spring season with the nationally-ranked doubles team of seniors Sabrina Lindemann and Monica Gonzalez-Gordo. The duo was ranked No. 56 in the country, but has found that competition has stepped up to face them, struggling with a 2-4 record at No. 1 doubles.

But the addition of four newcomers strengthened the Lady Tiger line-up, giving them the depth that propelled them to four straight road wins following losses at Mississippi State and No. 36 Ole Miss to open the season. The four newcomers - Andrea Feichtinger, Marlene Dirnstorfer, Viktoria Gruber and Germantown High School graduate Kristin Noble, have combined to give Memphis a 12-5 record in singles play. Dirnstorfer was named the Conference USA women's tennis player of the week, Tuesday, after going 3-0 in both singles and doubles in three road matches last week, while Noble, a former TSSAA singles champion, won her first collegiate dual match in straight sets at Tennessee Tech.

The Lady Tigers will get their chance to show their newly-revamped line-up to the rest of the conference this weekend, beginning with a 6 p.m. match at Cincinnati, Friday. Memphis will then face UAB, Saturday, at 6 p.m., and will cap their second-straight three matches in three days weekend against DePaul, at 10 a.m., Sunday. It will be the first three league matches of the season for the Lady Tigers.

Memphis will open its home season, Friday, Mar. 7th against Northwestern State on the on-campus facilities on the corner of Spottswood and Echles. That match is slated to begin at 2:30 p.m.

In addition to marking the first-ever appearance in the national polls for the Lady Tigers, this also marks the first time both the men's and women's tennis teams have been nationally-ranked. The Tiger men's team, currently on a competing hiatus due to the Kroger St. Jude tennis tournament at The Racquet Club, moved up to No. 52 in the country in this week's poll.