Ojeda Era Begins on the Road

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - The Alison Ojeda era begins for Middle Tennessee this weekend with a pair of matches on the road, as the women's tennis team starts the 2006 dual match season with a very inexperienced club. Ojeda, the first-year head coach and former All-American in both singles and doubles, heads into this weekend's matches at UT-Pan American and UT-San Antonio with two sophomores and four freshman, including Elvira Yusupova, who just enrolled last week at Middle Tennessee. Sophomore Ann-Kristin Siljestrom has the most experience for the Blue Raiders, compiling a 15-6 dual match singles record last season after enrolling in January. Siljestrom was also 12-9 in dual match doubles in 2005. The Stockholm, Sweden, native says she is ready to get going with the season along with her new teammates and coach. "We've been working so hard last semester and this semester and I'm really excited to get going," Siljestrom said. "We have almost a new team and I'm excited about my new teammates. "Coach has really put our goals high and stresses about how much work it takes to get there. We've all been waiting for this. You play the whole fall to get to the spring semester and start the dual matches." Sophomore Claudia Szabo played in 21 singles matches last year, posting seven victories, and winning 11 doubles tilts, and is the only other returning player with dual match experience. The rest of Ojeda's squad includes Yusupova and freshmen Kelly Adams, Pooja Kommireddi and Marlene Chemin. Ojeda says this weekend's matches will allow all of her players a chance to reap the benefits of a lot of hard work the past few months but also an opportunity to see what each player needs to work on as the season progresses. "We've put in a lot of work and ever since the end of the fall have been focused on specifics in everyone's games," Ojeda said. "I feel like we've improved a ton, but we also still have lots of room to improve and get better. Everyone's come a long way in a short amount of time, but now we need to play some matches and let the girls see for themselves where they need to improve and why we've been working on certain aspects of their game." The women take on UT-San Antonio Friday at 2 p.m. and then UT-Pan Am Sunday at 10 a.m. in San Antonio. The squad opens its home slate next weekend with matches against East Tennessee and Wichita State at the Racquet Club of Murfreesboro.

Middle Tennessee State University Athletics

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Players Mentioned

Kelly Adams

Marlene Chemin

Pooja Kommireddi

Ann-Kristin Siljestrom

Claudia Szabo

Elvira Yusupova

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