Valparaiso’s women’s tennis team opened its 2011 fall schedule on Friday afternoon at the River Forest Tournament held at the River Forest Tennis Club in River Forest, Ill.

The Crusaders all competed in one doubles contest and a pair of singles matches on day one of play.

Freshman Megan Barthels (Grand Rapids, Mich./Catholic Central H.S.) made her collegiate debut in the top flight of singles, and forced a match tie-break in her second contest of the day.  She fell to Jennifer Bradfield of Green Bay 7-5, 4-6, 10-6 after dropping a 6-2, 6-1 decision to Maggie Boeckman of SIU Edwardsville.

Another rookie, Kaitlyn Hamel (Lakewood, Colo./Green Mountain H.S.) was at the second flight for the Brown and Gold.  She fell 6-2, 7-5 and 6-3, 7-5 to Allison Fecko of Grand Valley State and Morgan Weuve of Green Bay.  Third singles saw Stephanie York (Elkhart, Ind./Jimtown H.S.) suffer a 6-1, 6-1 setback against GVSU while falling 7-6 (2), 6-2 against SIUE.

At the fourth spot, Michele Fredlake (South Bend, Ind./Saint Joseph’s H.S.) fell 6-0, 6-1 and 6-4, 6-1 to opponents from SIU Edwardsville and Green Bay.  Kristin Zakiewicz (Bristol, Ind./Northridge H.S.) battled in her second match, dropping a 6-3, 1-6, 11-9 decision to Haley Ilcewicz of SIUE after falling 6-3, 6-2 to Becca Nelson of Green Bay.

In sixth singles, Lauren Kammerer (Valparaiso, Ind./Valparaiso H.S.) fell 6-0, 6-0 in both of her matches.

In other singles play on Friday, Brittany O’Reilly (Green Bay, Wis./Southwest H.S.) and Angelina Goheen (Aurora, Ill./Rosary H.S.) both fell 6-1, 6-0 to opponents from SIUE while Aubree Zdanovec (Appleton, Wis./East H.S.) fell 6-3, 6-0 to the same school.

Doubles action saw Barthels and York fall 8-2 to SIU Edwardsville at the top of the order while Hamel and Fredlake dropped an 8-1 match to Green Bay at the second spot.  At number three doubles, Zakiewicz and O’Reilly fell 9-7 to Grand Valley State while Kammerer and Goheen suffered an 8-5 loss to SIUE.

Valparaiso will close out action at the tournament on Saturday beginning at 9 a.m.