By Jamie Augustinsky and Kaitlin Santanna

Staff Reporters

Men’s Tennis

Head Coach Brad Adams and the men’s tennis team look forward to opening their fall season at the Northeast Collegiate Invitational at Brown University in Providence, R.I. This three-day tournament will take place from Sept. 14-16. After that, the Wildcats will host Delaware in their home opener on Oct. 6.

The team concluded the spring season by competing in the Big East Tournament in Tampa, Fla., where Notre Dame and DePaul both defeated the No. 8-seeded Wildcats.

In the final match of the spring season, Villanova fell to UMBC.

This season, the team welcomes four freshmen who are looking to make key contributions to the team: Trenton Alenik, John Drosick, Mike Miller and David Shaheen.

The addition of these freshmen to a ’06-’07 team makes for an exciting season to build upon the accomplishments of last year. The men will conclude their fall season at the ITA Regionals in mid-October and will pick up again in February to begin the 2008 spring season.

Women’s Tennis

Although the women’s tennis team will miss the talent and leadership of three players from last year’s squad, an abundance of talented youth from last season hopes to lead the Wildcats to a successful ’07-’08 tenure.

Despite a 3-8 record last season, the Wildcats finished out the season with their most convincing win of the year over Big East rival Georgetown. Sub-par record notwithstanding, the team showed a plethora of individual promise through the season. One of the consistent bright spots was Carla Erskine. Erskine went 7-2 in singles matches last year and was a regular on the doubles court. The rising sophomore held down the No. 4 singles spot for the entire year and hopes to advance in the rotation and be a source of wins in the upcoming season.

Villanova looks to instill their young team with experience and maturity. Only one of the eight returning players is a senior, while the team sports five sophomores. Regardless of their inexperience, the Wildcats have talent, which makes up for their youth and looks to put out an productive season. Villanova kicks off its fall schedule Sept. 7 versus California University of Pennsylvania. The match will occur at the Villanova West Campus Tennis Complex at 1 p.m.