The Illinois women’s tennis team concluded its final week of fall practice with a dose of Halloween fun as it prepared for the Harvard Invitational, set to begin Friday. The Illini will head to Boston, where they will have their final chance to prove themselves before heading into the spring season.

“It’ll be a test to see how hard we’ve worked this fall. It’s the final hurrah,” head coach Michelle Dasso said.

The team will face tough competition in the three-day tournament, playing teams from Harvard, North Carolina and Texas A&M.;

“It’s teams that we won’t see in the spring,” Dasso said. “It is really nice to play against some different competition.”

Because it was Halloween and the final week of fall practice, the team thought it should do something fun to lighten up the mood before the tournament.

On Tuesday, each player drew another player’s name from a hat. They dressed up as whoever they picked and imitated them in practice on Halloween. The goal was to guess who was who.

It ended up being extremely obvious when the women took the court Wednesday. Beginning stretches were more like a comedy skit than a workout.

Sophomore Kristina Minor, who picked redshirt freshman Leigh Finnegan’s name, was the first one on the court. She sported an abnormally large white neck brace, a cozy yellow sweatshirt and black spandex pants. Minor broke out in laughter when Dasso appeared on the court in an orange polo and blue Nike shorts. She imitated assistant coach David Emery as she flaunted her new Dave Matthews CD.

“Have you heard the new Dave song?” Dasso asked her players. “Dude, seriously – it’s so good.”

Sophomore Megan Fudge said she was impressed by freshman Annie McCarthy’s imitation of her.

McCarthy quickly picked up Fudge’s German accent and whimpered as she hit the ball down the line. The only thing she was missing was red hair.

Fudge said they were able to pull this routine off because of the great chemistry this year’s team has.

“This just shows that we can joke around and still work hard,” she said.

Fudge, who leads the team with a 6-4 singles record this season, said she hopes to get more victories in this weekend than she did at the ITA Midwest Regionals.

“I think we all played well at Regionals, but obviously Regionals is a very good level so we couldn’t get all of the wins that we wanted,” she said.

The comedy culminated when Minor doubled over laughing as Emery called the stretches in a Dasso-like high-pitched voice, carrying a bulky black fanny pack.

After the stretches, Dasso told her players it was time to get down to work, but promised they could return to their act during the last five minutes of practice.

Contrary to Minor’s appearance in practice, she is now completely off of the injured reserve and believes the team is prepared for Friday.

“We’re just really excited to finish out the fall on a high note and then have a little break and come back for spring,” she said.

Minor said she does not want to worry about the other schools Friday, but just wants to get out there and play her best.

She said she is very happy the team has 10 healthy bodies this year and that they have all been working very hard on conditioning.

“I think we’ve come a really long way, especially from last year,” she said.

On another note, Finnegan will be playing her first singles match all season. Her solo debut was supposed to be at the ITA Midwest Regionals, but she was forced to retire early after suffering a minor leg injury.

“I think this tournament will be especially important for Leigh because it’s her first singles tournament back,” Dasso said. “She needs to get some match experience. Win or lose, it doesn’t matter. She just needs to play.”

Meanwhile, it will be a homecoming for junior Shivani Dave, who hails from Concord, Mass.

“She’s really excited,” Dasso said. “Her family is going to have us over for dinner Saturday night.”

Following the conclusion of the tournament, the Illini will take a break until their spring season begins.

They will reconvene Jan. 12, 2008, when they travel to Boca Raton, Fla., to compete against Florida Atlantic.