Article by Jeremy Nelson

The CCC women's tennis team gets their season underway on Friday night against Stephens College from Columbia, Missouri. The Tiger women will be playing the Stephens College Stars in Salina, Kansas indoors at the Genesis Health Club. The match is scheduled to start tonight at 7:00 pm.

For the Lady Tigers this will be their first real action together. They played a couple of exhibition matches in the fall against some local community colleges, but they didn't have their full complement of players as some were playing other fall sports. This year's squad consists of nine players. They are led by lone senior Victoria McCord. The Lady Tigers have one junior, walk on Kei Aizawa, four sophomores Megan Carter, Stevie Ellis, Amanda Berggren, and Elyse Merritt. Coach Nelson brought in three freshmen including Shelbi Mathis, Emerald Barnett, and Kyra Bentley.

The Tigers have been practicing since the middle of January but have had only limited time hitting outside thanks to the fluctuating Kansas weather.  The Stars opened up their season yesterday with a 9-0 loss to Evangel University (RV) in Springfield, Missouri. Their roster consists of seven players, three seniors, one junior, and three freshmen.  This is the first time in history, the Tigers and Stars have met on the tennis court.