Jan. 22, 2003

MANHATTAN, Kan. - The Kansas State tennis team opens its 28th year of competition when it plays preseason No. 41 Brigham Young at 1 p.m. Friday in Ahearn Field House.

The No. 61 ranked Wildcats return five letterwinners from last year's team that finished No. 54 in the final Intercollegiate Tennis Association poll with a 12-9 overall record and 6-5 Big 12 mark.

Senior Petra Sedlmajerova is expected to move from No. 3 singles to No. 1 singles with the graduation of Central Region and Big 12 Player of the Year Alena Jecminkova. Sedlmajerova posted a 5-5 record this fall and partnered with sophomore Andrea Cooper at No. 1 doubles for a 3-2 fall record and with freshman Jessica Simosa for a 4-1 mark.

Sophomore Maria Rosenberg will move to No. 2 singles after posting an impressive 19-9 record last year at No. 4 singles. The Manhattan High School product was 5-5 this past fall.

Singles spots No. 3-No. 6 will be filled by juniors Paulina Castillejos and Hayley McIver, Cooper or Simosa. Castillejos sat out the fall season with a shoulder injury, while McIver posted a 9-6 record and reached the semifinals of the backdraw in the ITA Regional Championships. Cooper was 6-6 and teamed with McIver to post a 4-1 doubles record. Simosa was 4-6 in singles.

"The last two years, we have had tough matches and I wouldn't expect anything different this weekend," Kansas State head coach Steve Bietau said. "BYU is a strong team and Craig (Manning) does a good job with them. I expect a match that is really going to test us."

The Cougars have six letterwinners returning from last year's team that finished No. 47 in the final ITA poll with a 10-14 overall record and 4-3 mark in the Mountain West Conference.

A pair of seniors, Dominique Reynolds and Lu Oswald, leads BYU. Reynolds enters the match ranked No. 8 in the Central Region rankings and Oswald is No. 17. Reynolds posted an 8-4 fall record, while Oswald was 11-2. In the only Kansas State-Brigham Young match this fall, Oswald lost to Rosenberg, 6-2, 7-6, in the second round of the ITA Regional Championships on Oct. 25.

Brigham Young has an 11-1 series lead over Kansas State and 3-0 lead in Manhattan. The lone K-State victory came last year when the Wildcats beat the Cougars, 4-3, in Provo. Of those returning, Rosenberg beat Elizaveta Khoudoiarova, 6-2, 6-0, at No. 4 singles, and Rosenberg and McIver beat Khoudoiarova and Nicole Schneider, 8-3, at No. 3 singles.