Women's Tennis Match 1

Sunday, January 21 at San Diego State @ 12 pm San Diego, CA

San Diego, CA— The UC Riverside Women's Tennis Team opens 2018 dual match play with an away match versus San Diego State at 12 pm Sunday, January 21.
           
Sunday's match-up will also be the Aztecs' season opener. They finished last season 5-17 overall and were 0-4 in the Mountain West Conference. When the Highlanders and Aztecs last met in 2016, the Aztecs came out on top with a 6-1 win in San Diego (Recap). 

JORDAN YEAR
Head Coach Mark Henry returns for his 23rd season as the women's tennis head coach, and his 25th season overall at UC Riverside. In that time, he has accumulated 160 total wins—133 of which have come on the women's side.

LAST YEAR
The Highlanders are coming off a 2016-17 season in which they won five matches, their most since 2010-11.

RETURNERS
UC Riverside returns ten players from last year's roster for the start of its 2017-18 campaign. That includes senior Karla Dulay and sophomore Sara Khattab, who both earned five singles wins last season while spending much of their time on the no. 1 and no. 2 courts.

Junior Tracy Van and sophomore Lauren Wolfe, who both tied for the team-lead with six wins during the dual season, will also be back in the lineup. The two also combined to lead the way with a 5-5 record in doubles matches, giving them the highest win percentage of any Highlander doubles team since the 2008-09 season.

Rounding out the returners are seniors Tamilla Vaksman, Kassie Truong and Natalie Penner, redshirt junior Chloe Pham, junior Arabella Valera, and sophomore Nicole Hitomi. Vaksman had the most overall wins (8) and highest win percentage (.444) on the team last year.

NEW FACES
The Highlanders will also welcome a pair of freshmen to the lineup in Tia Elpusan (Chula Vista, CA / Otay Ranch HS) and Tammy Van (Garden Grove, CA / Bolsa Grande HS).

NEXT UP
The Highlanders take on Hope International University in their home opener on the SRC Tennis Courts at 1:30 pm on Thursday, January 25.