The Irish kick off their fall season with the Adidas Hoosier Classic in Bloomington, Ind., on Friday at 11 a.m.
Notre Dame will be placed in two different flights. One will play round robin and the other will be playing in a draw setup. Juniors Julie Sabacinski and JoHannaManningham will be playing in the draw tournament along with sophomore Katherine White. Freshmen Quinn Gleason and Molly O'Koniewski will be playing in the round robin with junior Britney Sanders. It will be the first time the freshmen will be able to prove their competitive value on the team.
Sabacinski said the team goals for this weekend involve using the tournament as practice for their upcoming season.
"As a team we've really been working hard," Sabacinski said. "We've been in the weight room, running, on the court. Everyone's been working extremely hard so I think it'll be a great opportunity to see exactly where our levels of match play are."
Last season in Bloomington, the Irish won 15 singles matches and four players had three wins each. Notre Dame is looking for a similar result this year.
The Irish will also be competing in the doubles tournament. Sabacinski and Sanders will be playing as doubles partners. They've been paired together off and on for their college career, but Sabacinski was unsure if their partnership will last through both the fall and spring seasons.
"I guess it depends," Sabacinski said. "We're currently pre-season ranked at [No.] 36, but I guess it all depends on how we do together. We played together last year at No. 2 and we did really well."
The Irish will begin their fall season Friday at the Adidas Hoosier Classic in Bloomington, Ind. Singles play will start at 11 a.m. Friday, with doubles play starting at 3 p.m. The Classic runs through Sunday.
Contact Katie Heit at kheit@nd.edu and Vicky Jacobsen at vjacobse@nd.edu
