Women?s Tennis Opens Season with ITA Kick-Off Weekend
Jan 23, 2015 | Women's Tennis
2015 ITA Kick-Off Weekend
Saturday-Sunday, Jan. 24-25
George P. Mitchell Tennis Center, College Station, Texas
Saturday, January 24
12 p.m. Texas A&M vs. North Texas
3 p.m. TCU vs. Houston
Promotions:
- First 100 fans receive a free #12thMan Koozie
- Enter to win exclusive Texas A&M Adidas gear
- Where's Wilson
Sunday, January 25
12 p.m. Women's Championship
3 p.m. Women's Consolation
Promotion: Where's Wilson
Tickets: http://www.12thmanfoundation.com or at the Mitchell Tennis Center beginning one hour before match time
Tournament Central (live scoring/results): click here
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The Texas A&M women's tennis team opens its dual match season this weekend as the 11th-ranked Aggies play host to North Texas (0-1), Houston (1-1) and TCU (1-0) in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend, Saturday and Sunday at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.
Texas A&M makes its debut against 70th-ranked North Texas at noon on Saturday, and the Houston-TCU match, previously slated for 9 a.m., will be contested at 3 p.m. On Sunday, the women's championship match is scheduled for noon, with the winner earning a berth to the ITA National Indoor Championship, Feb. 6-9, in Charlottesville, Va. The consolation match will be played Sunday at 3 p.m.
"Without question this weekend will reveal a lot about where our team stands,” said Howard Joffe, who is entering his fourth season as head coach of the Aggies. “The opposition will be tough, motivated and skilled, and our ladies will need to perform well if we are to advance. We have a very talented team with excellent character this year, and I'm very confident on this basis that we will meet all the challenges that lie ahead."
The Mitchell Tennis Center also will serve as the host site for the men's ITA Kick-Off Weekend on Saturday and Sunday, and one ticket is good for both the men's and women's matches for the entire day. Tickets can be purchased in advance at 12thManFoundation.com or on the day of the match at the entrance to the Mitchell Tennis Center beginning one hour before first serve.
Joffe, who has led the Aggies to a 66-17 record during his three seasons at the helm, returns six letterwinners from last year's team that went 21-7, advanced to the NCAA round of 16 and was No. 9 in the final ITA team national rankings. The returners – three juniors and three sophomores -- along with two talented newcomers -- sophomore transfer Rachel Pierson, who earned All-American honors in doubles as a freshman at Virginia, and freshman Eva Paalma – will be looked upon to fill the void of last year's only senior, Cristina Stancu, who earned All-America honors in singles.
With a No. 29 ranking, sophomore Saska Gavrilovska, the 2014 ITA Texas Region Rookie Player of the Year and a member of the All-SEC second team, is A&M's top-ranked singles player. The Serbian enters dual match play 7-4 in singles matches this season, including 5-1 against ranked opponents.
Pierson, who currently leads the Aggies in both singles (11-4) and doubles (10-3) victories, is No. 56 in singles and is a team-high No. 21 in doubles with Paalma. Pierson also is No. 30 with junior Ines Deheza after the duo went 7-1 in tournament matches and won the doubles title at the ITA Texas Regional in October.
Juniors Stefania Hristov and Anna Mamalat and sophomores Mason Strickland and Rutuja Bhosale, a singles semifinalist at the National Collegiate Tennis Classic last weekend, round out the 2015 squad.
North Texas enters the match against the Aggies 0-1 and ranked 70th in the nation after falling at No. 24 Oklahoma, 7-0, on Tuesday. Sujay Lama is in his ninth season as head coach of the Mean Green and returns seven of eight letterwinners from last year's squad that went 11-11. Junior Kamilla Galieva is the only nationally ranked player, as she is listed 113th in singles.
Texas A&M, which opened last season by defeating both Mississippi State and DePaul to advance to the ITA National Indoor Championship for the second consecutive year, has won the last 14 meetings against North Texas and is 14-2 in the all-time series. The teams last met in the season-opening first round of the 2013 ITA Kick-Off Weekend, with A&M topping the Mean Green, 4-1.
A&M is 21-8 in the all-time series against former Southwest Conference-foe Houston. A&M has won the last eight meetings, including a 7-0 shutout in the last meeting on Feb. 2, 2008.
Houston enters the ITA Kick-Off weekend ranked No. 35 in the nation with a 1-1 record after defeating UTSA, 6-1, in the season opener and falling to No. 61 BYU, 4-3, on Monday. Pat Sullivan, A&M Class of 02, is in his third season as head coach of the Cougars and returns six letterwinners from last year's team that advanced to the first round of the NCAA tournament and finished 21-6.
The Cougars boast three nationally ranked singles players: No. 21 Despoina Vogasari, who is the No. 1-ranked singles player in the Texas Region, No. 52 Elena Kordolaimi and No. 106 Angela Lorenzo.
TCU, also a former member of the SWC, is ranked No. 41 and is 1-0 after opening the season with a 5-2 victory against Missouri in Fort Worth on Sunday. First-year head coach Lee Taylor Walker returns four letterwinners from last year's team that went 12-12. Although TCU is not represented in the national individual rankings, the duo of Seda Arantekin and Stefanie Tan is No. 2 in the Texas Region doubles rankings after finishing runner-up at the ITA Texas Regional to A&M's Deheza and Pierson.
The Aggies hold a 20-17 lead in the series against TCU and is riding a four-match win streak against the Horned Frogs, including a most recent 4-1 second-round victory in the Aggies' run to the 2013 NCAA Championship title match.
Fans will notice several changes in the scoring of this weekend's matches as the ITA efforts to “adopt creative and innovative measures to enhance the sport of tennis during this time of seismic change in collegiate athletics.” The ITA shortened format includes:
• No-ad scoring in singles and doubles
• Three doubles matches played, each match one set to 6, with a tiebreak at 6-all
• Followed (after a brief intermission; time TBA) by six singles matches, each match 2 out of 3 sets, with tiebreaks at 6-all
• No warm-up with opponents (in doubles and in singles)
After this weekend's matches, the Aggies are slated to be on the road until March 6, when they return to the Mitchell Tennis Center to host No. 23 South Carolina in a Southeastern Conference match-up.
Visit 12thMan.com for more information on Texas A&M women's tennis. Aggie fans also can keep up to date with the A&M women's tennis team on Twitter by following @AggieWTEN or on Facebook at Facebook.com/AggieWomensTennis.
Players Mentioned
