With four newcomers and the loss four players who were instrumental in last year’s success, the Illini women’s tennis team is still finding out how it ranks against other schools.

This weekend, the Illini will get another chance when they travel to Lexington, Ky., to compete in the Kentucky Fall Invitational.

The tournament has five .016-player singles flights, and five doubles flights consisting of eight teams each. Big Ten foes Ohio State and Purdue, as well as Abilene Christian, Arkansas, host Kentucky, Louisville, Marshall, Middle Tennessee State and William & Mary – who gave the Illini an early exit in last spring’s NCAA Tournament – are scheduled to compete in this weekend’s invite.

The Illini are excited about getting a chance to play some of the best competition in the nation. The tournament features the No. 2 doubles duo in the country, Amy Wei and Megan Muth of William & Mary, as well as the No. 3 tandem of Aibika Kalsarieva and Sarah Foster of Kentucky. Kalsarieva is also the nation’s ninth-ranked singles player.

“There will be some great competition in this tournament,” said junior Brianna Knue. “It will be nice to get some matches against some of the best players in the country. If there is one thing we learned from the first tournament, it is that we need more match play.”

On Sept. 17-19, the Illini competed in the Bronco Invitational and came away with a 14-13 record in singles and 7-5 in doubles. Illinois head coach Sujay Lama said the Illini will be looking to improve upon that performance.

“We are looking for progress,” Lama said. “We are not so worried about execution. The goal of this tournament will be to improve our games from the tournament in Western Michigan. We have a very young team and, right now, we’d just like to get better.”

Now that three of the four freshmen have a tournament under their belts, they can start working toward their goals. Freshman Elizabeth Dolen is set to return from her injury this weekend and will get an opportunity to play in the first tournament of her collegiate career.

“After playing our first tournament, we have something to work toward now,” said freshman Momei Qu. “Now we know about where we are and where we need to get to.”

Lama said he sees no reason why the Illini cannot improve upon the tournament in Western Michigan.

“The one thing I saw in that tournament was that we have a lot of desire,” Lama said. “We’ve got two weeks of practice behind us now and this is probably the best team I’ve coached in my six years here, when you talk about desire, coachability, and willingness to learn.”

Illini senior Cynthya Goulet and sophomore Emily Wang, who are ranked No. 44 in the country in doubles, are going to compete in the qualifying round of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-American Tournament on Tuesday for a chance to make the main draw.