The Irish will be splitting up the squad this weekend, sending two athletes to Lakewood Ranch, Fla., for the Lakewood Ranch Invitational while the rest of the team travels north for the Western Michigan Invitational.
Irish coach Jay Louderback said juniors Britney Sanders and Julie Sabacinski will represent Notre Dame at Lakewood Ranch.
"No," Louderback said when asked if he had a specific reason for choosing to send the juniors to Florida. "We just had to separate them and those two play doubles together, and so we wanted to keep them together."
This will be Sanders' first competition after being named the Big East Women's Tennis Player of the Month for the second straight month. Louderback said the Big East rarely gives the honor to the same athlete in consecutive months.
"It's usually spread around some, but I think she had such a good two months," Louderback said. "In September she won the [Adidas Hoosier Classic in Bloomington, Ind.] and then had a really good tournament at [the Midwest Regional Championships], getting into the finals in the singles and the doubles. So I think she had had such a good October that even though she had [the honor] in September they gave her a chance to get it both months. And there are lots of kids in the Big East who are good and well-deserving, I'm sure, so that was really good for her to get it two months in a row."
Winter matchups are quickly approaching, and Louderback said he will be using the upcoming tournaments to see his team's development and start finalizing positions for future matches.
"Right now we're using the fall to determine our lineup for the spring, "Louderback said. "I feel like our depth's very good, so the big thing's getting the chance to see the kids with different doubles partners and seeing how they're going to do against similar opponents."
The Irish will be competing all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday at both the Lakewood Ranch Invitational in Lakewood Ranch, Fla., and the Western Michigan Invitational in Kalamazoo, Mich.
Contact Vicky Jacobsen at vjacobse@nd.edu
