MORAGA, Calif. -- The Saint Mary's women's tennis team kicks off another fall season Friday when it heads to Berkeley to take part in the Cal Nike Invitational at Hellman Tennis Complex and Channing Tennis Courts.
As they have in each of the past few seasons, the Gaels take the short trip west for their season opener with the intention of finding out a bit about themselves. Four returners should help to form the anchor of this year's team, led by seniors Danielle Flores and Catherine Leduc. Flores is back for her third season in Moraga after spending most of the spring at No. 2 in the lineup while Leduc will look to close her four-year career with a flourish after earning both an ITA national ranking and All-West Coast Conference honorable mention last season.
Also back in the fold are junior Jamie Pawid and sophomore Parminder Kaur and each will play a big role again this season. Pawid was an All-WCC first team pick in the spring, climbing as high as No. 46 in the national rankings and finishing 4-1 in conference play. Kaur showed significant growth throughout the season and closed the year by winning nine of her final 11 singles matches as the Gaels' No. 6 player.
Joining those four returners this season is a highly touted trio of California natives that comprises the Gaels' incoming class for 2014-15. True freshmen Emma Critser and Kareena Manji will see their first collegiate action this week, and both were ranked as 5-star recruits by TennisRecruiting.net. Also making her SMC debut will be Texas A&M transfer Jana McCord, and the San Diego native has her own impressive resume as she earned a blue-chip, 5-star rating and ranking as high as No. 17 in the nation from TennisRecruiting.net after going 27-0 as a senior at Rancho Bernardo High School.
The 2014-15 Gaels will look the most different at the top of the lineup after the graduation of one of the school's greatest athletes ever. Jenny Jullien wrapped her career this spring with an astounding 21-3 record, earning her second-straight WCC Player of the Year award and becoming Saint Mary's first ITA All-American. Her absence means that, for the first time since 2012, SMC will have a new player filling the top line of the team sheet.
Jullien's isn't the only important departure for the Gaels. Fellow graduate Jade Frampton also leaves a substantial void in the lineup after earning All-WCC honorable mention in both singles and doubles. A two-time All-WCC honoree, Frampton was one of the most dependable performers in a Gaels lineup that has spent nearly all of the last five seasons in the national rankings.
"We're looking forward to seeing the girls on the court and getting some matches under our belts," Alipaz said. "We obviously lost a great player in Jenny but, from a team perspective, I expect us to be competitive again this season because we still have a talented group. This weekend will give us a good idea of where we're starting from and what we need to work on moving forward."
Live video from all matches played at Hellman Tennis Complex will be available through the Cal website. After their three days in Berkeley, the Gaels will turn their attention to the ITA Northwest Regionals that take place Oct. 10-14 at Stanford. They will then host the annual Saint Mary's Fall Invitational from Oct. 24-26 at Korth Tennis Complex.
