Women’s Tennis Selected to Compete in 2023 ITA Kickoff

SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah women’s tennis program was selected to compete in the 2023 ITA Kickoff Weekend. The Utes finished the 2022 season, 15-11 and ranked No. 49^th in the nation. This will be the first time the Utes have been chosen since 2019-20 season.
 
The Utes drew the Chapel Hill, N.C. regional, where No. 3 North Carolina is the host. Joining Utah and UNC are No. 50 Charlotte and No. 64 Maryland.
 
The field, comprised of 15 host sites, was decided via the ITA Women’s Kickoff Weekend Draft, with teams from around the country receiving the opportunity to choose which host site they would prefer to play at. The 15 host sites were predetermined based on 2022 year-end rankings. The selection order was based on year-end finish, starting with the No. 16 ranked team and running until all of the spots were filled.
 
The event will take place Friday and Saturday, Jan. 27-28, 2023. The winner of the UNC Regional will then advance to the ITA Indoor National Championships in Seattle, Washington.
 
The Utes finished the 15-11 on the season. Utah opened the season with a 9-0 mark, the best start in program history. Utah earned three ranked wins this season, including the 13th straight victory over BYU, who was ranked No. 54. 
 
Utah earned a 4-2 victory over then-No. 21 Southern California. The win was the first-ever victory over Southern California in program history. In the match against the Trojans, Linda Huang defeated Eryn Cayetano, who was ranked fifth in the ITA singles rankings. This was the third highest-ranked singles win in program history for the Utes. 
 
At the Pac-12 Tournament, the Utes defeated No. 48 Arizona, 4-1, in the first-round matchup. This was the first win in the Pac-12 Championship since 2017. Following the Pac-12 Tournament, the conference announced that Utah’s duo of Anastasia Goncharova and Linda Huang earned Pac-12 All-Conference honors. 
 
In the last ITA player rankings, Huang closed out the season ranked 105th in singles. This was the first time since 2015 that a Ute finished the season ranked. As a team, the Utes finished ranked 49th. 
 
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