Tallahassee, Fla. – Florida State women’s tennis will kick off the 2009 season this Friday, January 16, at the Northwestern Wildcats Invitational in Evanston, Ill. The 20th ranked Seminoles will have stiff competition as they face No. 1 Northwestern, No. 62 DePaul and Alabama.

“I think the team is very excited to compete this weekend,” said head coach Jennifer Hyde. “The fall season ends so early, there hasn’t been much structured competition for a lot of the players since November.”

Among the four schools competing at the invitational, there will be five ranked singles’ players, two of which belong to Florida State. On the doubles’ front, Florida State will face three ranked doubles’ team.

“The last week of practice has been great and everyone is hitting the ball pretty well right now,” said Hyde.

With the addition of newcomer Noemi Scharle (Colmar-Berg, Luxembourg) this spring, two ranked players and a competitive Seminole fight, Coach Hyde has positioned her team to continue the upward march towards one of the nation’s leading programs.

“The team is hungry to compete and we are looking forward to a weekend full of tennis matches and opportunities to get better as we head into the dual-match portion of the season.”

Singles and doubles’ play will begin Friday at 10 a.m.-09 and go through Sunday morning. Results will be available each night after all matches have finished.