GRAND FORKS, N.D.--Entering his 20th season at the helm the Fighting Sioux tennis program, head coach Tom Wynne opens the 2011 season today with one of his youngest rosters yet.

UND, which faces old North Central Conference rival St. Cloud State today in St. Cloud, Minn., boasts a lineup that has nary a senior or junior. Instead, Wynne will oversee five sophomores and four freshmen.

The cupboard of talent, however, is hardly bare. All five sophomores -- Chelsey Galipeau, Erin Kappers, Mindy Lawrence, Megan Sween and Hallie Welk -- received varying degrees of playing time on last year's team that advanced to the Great West Conference championship. Kappers emerged as an All-GWC first team selection and will be asked to help replace the likes of Katie Callison and Emma Larson, fellow All-GWC performers who were lost to graduation.

Wynne, the 2010 GWC Coach of the Year, will also receive a boost by the return to health of Galipeau, who had her promising freshman campaign cut short due to injury.

Grand Forks product Callie Ronkowski, the highest-rated prep player ever to sign with the Sioxu, heads up a promising freshman class. She led Red River High School to seven straight North Dakota state titles and won back-to-back singles championships.

The transition to the collegiate level for Ronkowski and her classmates will be a challenging one; UND's spring schedule is the toughest in program history with matches against the likes of Iowa State, Drake, Florida Atlantic, Radford and San Jose State.

Following today's match with SCSU, the Sioux will travel to Saint Peter, Minn., to face Nebraska Omaha. UND is then back in action next weekend in Waterloo, Iowa, with showdowns against Northern Iowa, Green Bay and Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

~Go Sioux~