THIS WEEK: The Washington State Tennis team (7-14, 0-10 Pac-12) begins play at the 2023 Pac-12 Women’s Tennis Championship against No. 6-seed USC Wednesday, April 26 at 3 p.m. at the Weil Tennis Academy in Ojai, Calif. The Cougars enter the tournament as the No. 11 seed.
FOLLOW LIVE: Follow the Cougars at the Pac-12 Tennis Championship with live video HERE.
COUGARS AT PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIP: The Cougars are 4-5 all-time at the Pac-12 Championship, having won one round at each of the last four championships. If the Cougars were to get past USC, they would face No. 3-seed Arizona State. Last season, the Cougars defeated No. 35 Washington 4-2 in the opening round before falling to No. 16 UCLA. WSU faced USC in the first round of the 2017 Pac-12 Championship, the inaugural year of the team tournament, resulting in a USC victory.
SCOUTING USC: The Trojans bring a 16-8 overall record, 6-4 in Pac-12, into Wednesday’s opening-round match. USC has won three of its last four matches, with the lone defeat coming against No. 19 UCLA, 4-3 last Friday. Earlier this season, the Trojans posted a 6-1 win over the Cougars in Pullman, with Cougar freshman Eva Alvarez Sande picking up WSU’s lone victory with a win at No. 1 singles. USC leads the all-time series, 27-2.
LAST WEEK: Washington State dropped its regular-season finale at No. 22 Washington, 7-0.
DOUBLES DUO EARNS NATIONAL RANKING: The doubles pair of freshman Eva Alvarez Sande and sophomore Elyse Tse has found great success since teaming together midway through the season. The pair has posted a 9-2 record this year, going 4-2 at No. 1 and 5-0 at No. 2. After defeating the nation’s 11th-ranked team from Arizona State last month, the Cougar duo entered the national rankings at No. 38 and are currently No. 55.
ROSTER BREAKDOWN: For the 2022-23 season the Cougars will have three new players to accompany the six returners. The returning roster consists of fifth-year senior Yang Lee, junior Fifa Kumhom and sophomores Hania Abouelsaad, Stefaniia Mikhailova, Maxine Murphy and Elyse Tse. Joining the Cougar tennis program this year are freshmen Eva Alvarez Sande, Yura Nakagawa and Tiffany Phout.
COACH RAQUEL ATAWO: Raquel Atawo is in her second season as head coach of the Cougars after…
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