ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFKnights.com) – The UCF women's tennis team officially opens the 2018 season this weekend with a pair of matches at the USTA National Campus. The Knights will take on No. 15 South Carolina on Friday night at 5 p.m., before facing North Texas on Sunday at 11 a.m.
Head coach Bryan Koniecko enters his second season with a mix of veteran experience and young talent. Seniors Monica Matias and Emilia Granstrom, along with junior Natalia Serrano, are the only returners from last year's squad that went 13-9 and advanced to the quarterfinals of the American Athletic Conference Championships.
At the end of the summer, Matias was recognized as one of five Fed Cup MVPs in the world after the native of Puerto Rico lifted her homeland to Americas Group I promotion.
Joining the veteran trio for 2018 is the 13th ranking signing class from Tennis Recruiting Network. Sylvia Bordes and Maria Martinez were ranked in the Top-40 in Spain. Ksenia Kuznetsova, a Russian international, was a two-time doubles champion in Spain. Rebeka Stolmar was a five-time Hungarian singles champion and won six ITF doubles events.
The fall featured a pair of doubles titles for the Black and Gold. Matias and Serrano teamed up to win the Bedford Cup and Dick Vitale Clay Court Classic, with the latter featuring an all-Knights final against Martinez and Kuznetsova.
The Knights open their second season playing at the USTA National Campus with five straight matches at home, before hitting the road for back-to-back trips to Texas in February.
UCF will return to Orlando on March 3 for the USTA College MatchDay series against Michigan at 12:30 p.m.
The Gamecocks went 20-9 last season and reached the NCAA Sweet 16, but fell to No. 2 Ohio State. South Carolina closed the year ranked 15th. Heading into 2018, South Carolina boasts the 43rd and 105th ranked singles players in the nation in Hadley Berg and Megan Davis, as well as two doubles pairing in the Top-50.
North Texas posted an 11-12 record last season after reaching the C-USA semifinals. Maria Kononova will start the year ranked 42nd in singles action and 36th in doubles play with partner Tamuna Kutubidze.
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