INDIAN WELLS, Calif.— The #9 UC Riverside Women's Tennis Team (5-14, 0-8) heads to the Indian Wells Tennis Garden this Thursday to take on #8 UC Irvine (9-15, 1-7) in the first round of the Big West Championship. The Highlanders and the Anteaters met in the regular season this past Saturday where the Eaters took the match 4-3. The first round matchup is set to start at 9:00 AM and the winner will face #1 UC Santa Barbara on Friday.

TOURNAMENT BRACKET

2017 BIG WEST CHAMPIONSHIP
The 2018 Championship will be a rematch of last year's tournament as the Highlanders took a first round exit 4-0 to 8^th seeded UC Irvine.

RECORD BROKEN
The doubles duo of sophomore Sara Khattab and freshman Tia Elpusan broke the all-time program record for doubles wins earning its 15^th of the season in UCR's 9-0 sweep of Chaminade. The two Highlanders dropped Liner Catrina and Te'i Salamasina 8-2 on court one.

TIA ON TOP
Freshman Tia Elpusan has proven to be a dominant force in just her first year as a Highlander leading the team with 10 singles wins this season including six wins on court two. She also leads the team in doubles with 15 wins alongside partner Sara Khattab.

On March 21st, Elpusan captured her first career Big West Women's Tennis Athlete of the Week award after going 6-0 between singles and doubles. Elpusan posted a 3-0 record at No. 2 singles.  She won twice in three sets, including a 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 decision against Southern Utah's Zoe Tanti.  She also outlasted Bradley's Malini Wijesinghe in three sets, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. The freshman helped the Highlanders to a 2-1 record for the week as they defeated Bradley (7-0) and Drake (4-3) and effectively snapped a 13-match skid.  With partner Sara Khattab at No. 1 doubles, the duo went 3-0 against their opponents, and have now won five straight matches.

RAQUETS? OR BROOMS?
Three of UCR's wins this season have come in sweeping fashion as the Highlanders defeated Hope International and Bradley 7-0 at home and Chaminade 9-0 on the road.

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK
Sophomore Sara Khattab earned the first Big West Women's Tennis Athlete of the Week honor for UC Riverside in nearly six years, excelling in singles and doubles during her matches against Hope International, Long Beach State and Grand Canyon January 25-28 (Recap). Khattab's most outstanding victory came when she won the lone singles match for UC Riverside in its Big West opener against Long Beach State, charting 1-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5) against Lalita Devarakonda at the No. 3 position.

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 164 total wins—137 of which have come on the women's side.