ORLANDO – The No. 21 ranked UCF women's tennis team is set for the NCAA Tournament as the Knights will open play against No. 41 Alabama at 10 a.m. ET. on Friday, May 6 in Coral Gables, Florida.
All games throughout the NCAA Tournament can be streamed live on the TennisOne app. Live stats for UCF's game against Alabama can also be found here. If the Knights advance, live stats versus Miami/Stetson can be found here.
Heading into the tournament, UCF is 15-7 overall and 3-0 in AAC play. The Knights have picked up eight wins over nationally ranked opponents, including a 4-3 decision over No. 9 Oklahoma State. UCF has won eight of its past nine matches, and the Knights' Marie Mattel is ranked No. 116 in the nation in singles while her and Evgeniya Levashova rank No. 48 as a doubles team.
Alabama, meanwhile, is 15-11 (5-8 SEC) this year after falling in five of its last six contests. Heading into the tournament, the Crimson Tide have two ranked singles players with Loudmilla Bencheikh at No. 66 and Petra Sedlackova at No. 68. Sedlackova and Anna Parkhomenko also check in at No. 52 in doubles.
This is UCF's fourth consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament. The Knights advanced to the second round in 2018 with a win over FIU before falling 4-3 to nationally seeded Miami. In 2019, they made it to the Sweet 16, sweeping Alabama in the first round and upsetting No. 11 national seeded Florida State 4-1. After the COVID-shortened 2020 season brought a cancellation to all spring postseason tournaments before they began, the Knights returned to the big dance in 2021, advancing all the way to the Sweet 16 for the second straight time before falling to Duke, 4-3.
UCF is 2-2 all-time against the Crimson Tide, with its last matchup resulting in a 4-0 UCF win in the 2019 NCAA Tournament in Tallahassee. The Knights are also 27-27 all-time against Stetson and 2-10 against the Hurricanes.
THE OPPONENTS
Alabama
- Led by Loudmilla Bencheikh and Petra Sedlackova, who rank 66th and 68th in singles, respectively, and Sedlackova and Anna Parkhomenko, who rank 52nd in doubles
- Rank 41st as a team in the latest ITA rankings, with a 15-11 record
- Upset No. 10 Georgia in a 4-3 victory
- Opened the year with nine consecutive wins and are 6-11 since
Miami
- Is the overall ninth seed in the NCAA Tournament
- This will be their 26th consecutive appearance in the tournament
- The team is 17-5 on the season and is coming off a 4-3 loss to Duke in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament
- Miami has three players ranked in singles with Daevenia Achong ranked 33rd, Eden Richardson ranked 37th and Isabella Pfenning ranked 92nd
- In doubles, Diana Khodan and Maya Tahan rank 54th and Tatyana Nikolenko and Maya Tahan rank 76th
Stetson
- The team enters the tournament ranked 61st nationally with a 22-2 record (most wins and best winning percentage in program history)
- The Hatters won the ASUN Championship, defeating Liberty 4-2 for the title
- This season also marked the first ever NCAA DI Tournament berth for the Hatters
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