BLACKSBURG, Va. – Fourteen home dual matches, including eight against teams that finished last season in the final ITA poll, highlight the 2011-12 Virginia Tech women’s tennis schedule. The home slate also includes a tournament that will wrap up fall tournament play.

The Hokies opened the schedule Sept. 9-11 at the Tribe Invite in Williamsburg, Va. Tech will next be in action at the UNCW Collegiate Tennis Invitational, hosted by UNC Wilmington in Wilmington, N.C. on Sept. 16-18. The first weekend of October will have Virginia Tech splitting the team with a group playing at the two-day Wake Forest Classic (Oct. 1-2) while the other group will begin compete in the Williamsburg ITF Circuit (Oct. 1-4).

Tech will travel to the Mountaineer Invite (Oct. 7-9) in Morgantown, W.Va. as well as the Davidson Tournament (Oct. 14-15) and the Atlantic Regionals in Norfolk, Va. (Oct. 21-25). The team will conclude the fall season hosting the Hokie Fall Invite, Nov. 4-6 at the Burrows-Burleson Tennis Center.

“We are excited about this year’s schedule as it presents many opportunities for us as a team and individually,” head coach Terry Ann Zawacki-Woods said. “Our conference schedule allows us to compete against the best in the nation and we will also have plenty of great competition in our non-conference matches. I am looking forward to seeing how our team competes this fall in both singles and doubles and will look for the players to continue to improve into our spring season.”

In the spring, Tech will face a challenging schedule with 15 nationally recognized teams on the docket. The Hokies will be at home for their first nine matches of the spring, beginning Jan. 28, with Elon in the morning followed by East Carolina that afternoon. Tech will also begin ACC play during that stretch with a home match against Virginia on Jan. 31. The home stand will bring Appalachian State and Winthrop on Feb. 4, Liberty (Feb. 5), Davidson and East Tennessee State on Feb. 11 and VCU on Feb. 15 to the Burrows-Burleson Tennis Center.

In addition, the Hokies are set to host Boston College (March 17), North Carolina (March 24), Duke (March 25), Georgia Tech (April 7) and Clemson (April 8). All five teams finished last season ranked in the final ITA poll.