Hokie ClubBLACKSBURG - Six members of the Virginia Tech women's tennis team will be traveling this weekend to compete at the Big 5 Challenge Sept. 20-23 hosted by TCU at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center in Fort Worth, Texas.
Traveling for Virginia Tech are returners Shene Disbergen, Dori Mesmer, Natalie Novotna, Nina Sorkin. Freshmen Annie Clark and Rita Pinto will be making their collegiate debuts on the court.
Novotna enters the field ranked 32nd in the ITA preseason singles standings. She represented the Hokies at the 2018 NCAA Singles Championships and finished the year with a 24-13 overall record. Sorkin was also solid for the Hokies during her rookie campaign, tallying a 20-17 overall record, including a 12-6 clip in the spring. Disbergen was 9-9 on the season. This marks the first competition of the year for the three while Mesmer was in action last weekend at the Bedford Cup.
Athletes from Arizona, Arizona State, Auburn, Georgia, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Notre Dame, Texas Tech, Texas A&M and Virginia will be featured along with the Hokies in this weekend's contest. All of the teams except for Missouri finished last season ranked in the final ITA team standings of 2017-18. Combined the teams boast 16 players ranked in the preseason ITA singles standings as well as nine doubles tandems.
The Hokies begin competition with the doubles matches at 5 p.m. ET on Thursday, Sept. 20. Singles will begin Friday, Sept. 21 at 3:30 p.m ET. Matches will be held all day Friday and Saturday, and play will conclude on Sunday with times to be determined.