IU kicks off season in Carolina

The IU women's tennis team looks to build on the momentum from last season when it takes the first strokes of the 2006-07 season Saturday at the Wake Forest Invitational in Winston-Salem, N.C.\nLast season's accomplishments included the 300th Big Ten win for IU coach Lin Loring and a second all-Big Ten team accolade for then-senior Sarah Batty. Those are big shoes to fill, but the Hoosiers, who finished 17-9 last year, are ready for the challenge, said senior Laura McGaffigan.\n"Our team got along really well last year," McGaffigan said. "I am starting to see that with this year's team as well. We are coming along great."\nThe fall and winter are full of tournaments that serve as a warm up for the Big Ten season, which begins in March.\n"These tournaments are more for individual improvements," said junior Brianna Williams. "We are just hoping to do the best that we can and come out of these tournaments with no injuries."\nThe team, which contains just two seniors and three juniors, will travel to Michigan and California to help prepare for the regular season.\nLoring, who helped coach last year's young team to a Sweet-16 appearance in the NCAA Tournament, will have a more experienced lineup to work with this year. Who will play first, second and third singles and the doubles positions is not determined until the spring season since all the matches in the winter are tournaments.\nUnlike with most sports, in these early-season tennis tournaments, each player gets to go against top competition from around the country instead of lower-caliber, non-conference opponents. For example, Wake Forest, the host of the tournament, has three players ranked in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's top 100 players.\n"One thing I'm looking forward to the most is playing some of the top players," Williams said. "(We want) to see where we really stand and what we need to continue to work on."\nThe team, which finished No. 42 in the national rankings last year, realizes that these tournaments are more about improving than wins and losses.\n"We can't get caught up in winning and losing," McGaffigan said. "We just have to go out and keep working on improving"