Women's tennis brings youthful outlook to new season

ORANGE, Calif. – Youth will be the predominant factor of the 2018 season for the Chapman University women's tennis team. The Panthers welcome 12 freshmen to the roster with no seniors and just two returners.

Junior Nicole Fouts and sophomore Raven Hampton have stuck with head coach Will Marino and the program through two years with no on-campus facility and return this year in a leadership role. Fouts played mainly at No. 2 last year and went 4-14 on the year. Hampton also won four match last year in the No. 4 spot in the lineup.

With two returners, the freshmen will obviously fill a significant portion of the lineup in both singles and doubles. Freshmen are expected to fill out the top half of the singles lineup for the Panthers with Isabella Oederkerk slotted to be at No. 1. She went 2-1 at the Panthers' fall tournament in singles and 1-1 with fellow freshman Madison Ross in doubles.

Chapman plays a home-heavy schedule with 14 of their first 15 matches at home. They leave campus just once in March to visit UC Irvine on Mar. 4 but return home for 11 matches at home through the rest of the month.

With the influx of freshman into the program and a brand new facility, the Panthers' will look to improve on their 2-17 record from a year ago. The 2017 season ended with a Chapman win over Whittier in the seventh-place match of the SCIAC Tournament.

The Panthers take the court at the brand new Lastinger Tennis Center tomorrow at 1 p.m. against NCAA Division II member Biola to open the season and the careers for the majority of the team.

By Steven Olveda
Sports Information Director

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