SEATTLE – The Husky women’s tennis team will host Eastern Washington for the first match of 2024 on Saturday, Jan. 13.
The match will kick off at 11 a.m. at Nordstrom Tennis Center. Live scoring will be available here and live streaming can be found at this link.
Head coach Robin Stephenson will begin her 10th season in Seattle with a Husky squad that was notched at No. 24 in the ITA rankings on Jan. 3.
“I’m so excited to get back on the court with my Dawgs,” senior Melissa Sakar said. “It’s been a long time coming and we have put so much work in. I’m excited to see it all come together on the court.”
In the final season of the Pac-12 conference, six conference schools made their way in the 2023-24 ITA preseason rankings (No. 6 Stanford, No. 16 UCLA, No. 19 Cal, No. 22 USC, No. 24 Washington and No. 25 Arizona State).
Washington competed in three tournaments in the fall of 2023. The Huskies started the year at the SMU Invitational Oct. 6-8, where three doubles duos picked up wins on the final day of competition.
Erika Matsuda and Dariya Detkovskaya, Astrid Olsen and Alexia Jacobs, and Melissa Sakar and Catherine Gagnon gave the Huskies three doubles wins, just a day after seven of eight Dawgs secured singles victories.
The Dawgs found success in the ITA Northwest Regionals at Stanford Oct. 13-16, with doubles pair Olsen and Jacobs paving their way to a semifinals appearance against a No. 1 seeded Cal doubles team.
SCOUTING REPORT – EASTERN WASHINGTON
Eastern Washington was picked to finished ninth in the 2024 Big Sky Women’s Tennis Preseason Coaches Poll, receiving 10 points.
Eastern went 3-5 in the Big Sky conference last season and finished 4-12 overall for a seventh place league finish.
LOOKING BACK TO LAST SEASON
Washington advanced to the NCAA Championships for the fourth time under Stephenson in the 2023 season, marking the first back-to-back tournament appearances since the 2008-11 run.
The Dawgs knocked off Arkansas in the NCAA first round and finished the season ranked in the Top-25, at No. 21, with a season-high No. 16 ranking. Washington also reached the Pac-12 Championship semifinals for the second time and had its first season sweep of UCLA and USC since the 2003 season. Four different Dawgs were ranked in singles during the season.
UP NEXT
Washington will head to Honolulu, Hawaii to compete with Memphis (Jan. 19) and Hawai’I on Jan. 20. Both matches will start at 2 p.m. PT/12 p.m….
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