Thursday, 10/06/2011

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – All-American Leslie Hureau, a junior on Indiana’s women’s tennis team, will participate in the 2011 ITA/Riviera Women’s All-American Championships in Pacific Palisades, Calif.  The main draw of the tournament begins on Thursday, Oct. 6.
 
Hureau is invited to participate after earning All-America honors last spring and is just one of 32 players participating in the main singles draw.  Hureau will play on Thursday morning.  Final draws have not been posted but will be updated on IUHoosiers.com by 9 p.m. ET.
 
“This tournament will be a wonderful experience for Leslie, right up there with the NCAA Championships,” head coach Lin Loring said.  “The main draw is exactly half the size of the NCAA’s, so this is really an elite field. It is hosted at the Riviera Country Club, which is the site of the Northern Trust Open, formally the Nissan Open, on the PGA tour. So it’s really a spectacular site. They do a first class job hosting the tournament and the college players.”
 
The Annecy-le-Vieux, France, native traveled to last season’s NCAA Women’s Tennis Singles Championship at Stanford in May as an alternate.  She was then inserted into the tournament and did not disappoint.
 
In her first round match, Hureau outlasted Byrnn Boren of Tennessee in three sets, 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5). During second round action, Hureau dropped the first set again to begin the match.  However, she did not let the setback faze her as she rallied in sets two and three to take down Anouk Tigu of Arkansas, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.
 
The second-round victory put Hureau into the Sweet 16 of the tournament, and with reaching that round, she earned All-America Honors in singles play.  She became the first singles All-American for IU women’s tennis since Deborah Edelman and Stephanie Reece each earned that honor in 1992.