The Iowa women’s tennis teamwill hit the road for the Furman Fall Classic and some stiff competition.

By Mason Clarke
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The Iowa women’s tennis team will begin competition today at the Furman Fall Classic, a three-day tournament in Greenville, South Carolina.

The young team will face some serious competition.

Returning national champion Vanderbilt will be there, and five of the eight participating teams are ranked in the top 40.

This highly competitive weekend will be the first college action for Iowa’s four freshmen: Adorabol Huckleby, Carin Runefelt, Kristen Thoms, and Taylor Tamblyn.

Sophomore Zoe Douglas, who came to Iowa from England, will also participate in her first fall tournament this weekend. Douglas knows the Furman Fall Classic is competitive, but she is optimistic.

“It’s a big tournament. It’s one of the best fall tournaments,” she said. “I’m just going in open-minded, trying to just see how it all goes. Hopefully, it all goes well.”

While the team is young, five of Iowa’s players have seen fall tournament action in the past.

Players with experience include sophomores Montana Crawford and Anastasia Reimchen, juniors Natalie Looney and Aimee Tarun, and senior Annette Dohanics.

Looney, who transferred to Iowa from South Carolina, will compete in her first tournament as a Hawkeye.

She had two years of experience at South Carolina after redshirting her freshman spring season.

Although she is new to Iowa’s team, coaches have seen plenty of leadership from Looney. This weekend she plans to give it her all.

“I’d like to go out there and see how well I can compete. That’s always my biggest goal, to just compete as well as I can,” Looney said. “I’m excited to be out there with my teammates surrounding me on the court.”

A flights system will be used for this tournament. In that system, players do not compete in single-elimination matches. Instead, each player will be in a pool, or a flight, and a “round robin” sort of tournament will take place.

Lone senior Dohanics is confident in her teammates despite their lack of experience.

“They are very mature girls,” she said. “They already have a good sense of themselves.”

Dohanics has lettered for Iowa each of her past three seasons, so the Furman Fall Classic has a different feel for her.

She recorded winning records through two of her three previous autumn seasons, so she will concentrate on remaining focused in the tournament.

“Going into the weekend, I would love to come out with a winning record because of how tough the competition is,” Dohanics said. “And I obviously want to have a great time with whoever I’m playing doubles with.”

On paper, the Hawkeyes may seem overmatched, but they are not worried. In fact, the players all seem to be excited; they have worked for a month in preparation for the tournament.

Dohanics looks forward to the team spending its first weekend tournament together and getting a chance to build chemistry.

“Hopefully, as a team, we can all build these relationships, because this is our first time traveling together,” she said. “It will be really interesting to get to know each other on that kind of level and see everyone’s little habits.”