STATESBORO, Ga. – The women's tennis team holds its annual home tournament at the Wallis Tennis Complex this weekend to kick off the 2016-2017 season. The Georgia Southern Invitational begins at 9 a.m. each day with singles playing the best two-out-of-three sets with no ad scoring, and doubles playing to six games with no ad scoring.

The field includes Troy, UNC-Asheville, Savannah State, SCAD, Florida Atlantic and host Georgia Southern.

This will be the first time the 2016-2017 Eagles take the court this season. The team is made up of two seniors in Guilia Riepe and Mariana Ranzahuer, junior transfer Ella Monsey, sophomores Paige Christian and Emilia Bujan, and freshmen Nikki Gilner and Arianne de Winter.

"We are really looking forward to hosting our first tournament for the Fall 2016 season. The girls have been training for several weeks now, and they are very excited for the opportunity to compete again," said head coach Michele Stanford, who is entering her third season as head coach of the Eagles. "We have three new additions to our team this year, so it will also be very exciting to see how we compete as a team. This tournament can potentially set the tone for the rest of our fall season, so it is very important that we get an aggressive start.."

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