Women's Tennis | August 29, 2019

KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Western Michigan women's tennis program and head coach Ryan Tomlinson released Thursday the squad's 2019 fall competition schedule.

The fall slate features five weekends of play, beginning September 20 in Ann Arbor, Mich. The Broncos will send representatives to the Michigan Invite from September 20-22.

Western Michigan plays the following weekend in Bloomington, Ind., for the Hoosier Invite.

The Broncos host the program's annual WMU Fall Invite October 11-13 at the Sorensen Courts.

The ITA Regionals are slated for October 17-22 in East Lansing, Mich. The event provides an opportunity for players to qualify for the Oracle ITA National Fall Championships November 6-10 in Newport Beach, Calif.  

Western Michigan caps the season the first weekend in November at the Roberta Alison Invite in Tuscaloosa, Ala. The tournament's namesake holds one of the most inspiring stories in tennis history. In 1963, the Southeastern Conference made an historic decision to allow women to compete on men's varsity teams, the first step toward opening the door for women's varsity athletics by the SEC member schools. Alabama's head coach at the time, Jason Morton, discovered Alison at a local Tuscaloosa country club, where she was training for the U.S. Women's Tennis Nationals. Alison, a native of Alexander City, Ala., traveled to Tuscaloosa for her training because it provided her with the closest source of a grass court, the surface that nationals would be played on.

The Broncos feature eight returning letterwinners and welcome one freshman after going 12-11 overall and 4-3 in Mid-American Conference action in 2018-19.

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