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BLACKSBURG, Va. - A slate of 13 home matches, including dates against defending national champion Duke along with Tennessee, Louisville, Virginia, North Carolina and several other matches against some of the top teams in the nation, highlight the 2009-10 Virginia Tech women’s tennis schedule. The home schedule also includes the Hokie Fall Invitational, Oct. 2-4, at the Burrows-Burleson Tennis Center as well as the ITA Atlantic Regional Oct. 22-26. The Hokies return six players from last year's 13-11 squad which was ranked No. 54 nationally.

Tech opened the fall schedule last weekend at the William & Mary Tribe Invitational which will be followed by the Hokie Fall Invitational. The ITA Atlantic Regional is next on the fall slate and the individual season concludes with The Landings Invitational, Oct. 30 - Nov. 2, in Savannah, Ga. and the Kitty Harrison Invitational, Nov. 6-8, in Chapel Hill, N.C.

"We are excited about this season’s schedule,” said Virginia Tech head coach Terry Ann Zawacki-Woods. “We are competing in some strong fall tournaments this year to help prepare us for the upcoming spring season and I am looking forward to being able to compete against some of the teams during our fall tournaments which we will face in the spring dual match season.”

The Hokies will face another tough spring schedule featuring 14 teams that were ranked at the end of last season. In fact, eight of the Hokies’ 11 ACC opponents concluded last season in the national rankings, with three (No. 1 Duke, No. 7 Miami and No. 8 Georgia Tech) finishing in the top ten. The Hokies will also face 2009 top ten Georgia (No. 3) and Tennessee (No. 10).

The dual-match schedule opens on Jan. 27 with a home match against Elon. Tech will travel to Athens, Ga., for the first- and second rounds of the ITA National Indoor, Jan. 30-31. The February schedule includes home matches versus Tennessee and Liberty followed by a road contest at Marshall. Tech will host a doubleheader versus Virginia Commonwealth and Davidson before rounding out the month with the ACC opener at Maryland.

The March schedule features home contests against Louisville, South Alabama, Boston College and Virginia, with road matches at Richmond, Miami and Florida State. The regular season concludes in April with home matches versus Duke, North Carolina, Clemson and Georgia Tech and road contests at NC State and Wake Forest. The ACC Championships will be held in Cary, N.C. (Apr. 22-25) prior to the NCAA Championships.

“Our spring season will definitely allow us to face some great challenges both within and outside the ACC,” said Zawacki-Woods. “ We are looking forward to hosting many good nationally ranked programs and also to participate in the ITA Kickoff Weekend in January at Georgia. Our schedule will continue to help our program and individuals reach the goals we have set earlier this year and I am excited to get started.”

For updates on Virginia Tech women's tennis, follow the Hokies on Twitter (@VT_WTennis).