ORLANDO - The No. 14 UCF women's tennis team will return home this weekend to face off against TCU and #25 Pepperdine. The match against TCU will be held Friday, Feb. 24 at 5 p.m. and the match against Pepperdine will take place on Sunday, Feb. 26 at 12 p.m. Both matches will be free admission, with live stats and live video streaming being offered as well.
LAST TIME OUT
The Knights had a difficult weekend last week, going on the road to face #15 Vanderbilt and #24 Tennessee. While both resulted in a loss, there were high points for both matches as well. Senior Marie Mattel earned two ranked wins in straight sets on her path to being named the AAC Women's Tennis Player of the Week for the second time this season. Stefani Webb put up a good fight and took the 34th-ranked singles player to three sets in the match against Tennessee, before falling short in the third. Noel Saidenova and Sophia Biolay also secured singles wins this weekend.
DEFENDING HOME COURT
USTA National Campus brings out the best in the Knights, who are currently undefeated on home courts. The regular season home win streak extends back to March 17, 2022, when the squad took down Eastern Michigan by a commanding 6-1 score. If the Knights win both matches this weekend, they will improve their win streak to 12.
KNIGHTS IN THE POLLS
The Knights continue to climb the ITA Rankings, shifting up to No. 14. The ranking ties the seventh-highest ITA team ranking in program history. Mattel remained ranked in the latest ITA Singles rankings, moving up to No. 31 after earning two ranked wins over the weekend, defeating the 34th-ranked and 65th-ranked singles players to improve her singles record to 5-1. She is now tied with Valeriya Zeleva for 10th highest ranked women's singles player in UCF history. Nandini Sharma reentered the singles rankings at 125.
THE FIELD
TCU had a hot start to its dual matches season. It was 6-0 for the first time in the Big 12 era, before having its win streak snapped by a difficult 1-6 loss to LSU. In the latest computerized rankings from the ITA, the Horned Frogs checked in at No. 65. They have one ranked doubles tandem in No. 44 Helena Narmont and Yu-Chin Tsao, who are currently undefeated, winning five matches on court two and one match on court three. Graduate senior Mercedes Aristegui was named the Big 12 Women's Tennis Player of the Week on Feb. 7 and is 6-1 with one ranked win and one ranked loss. This will be the seventh all-time meeting between the two teams, with the record being tied 3-3.
Pepperdine has had a bit of a break since its last competition at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships after going 1-2 in the tournament, improving its record to 3-2. The ITA rankings from Feb. 21 feature the Waves at No. 25, a 17-spot drop from the previous poll. The squad has three top-40 singles players, 16th-ranked Savannah Broadus, 29th-ranked Janice Tjen, and 35th-ranked Lisa Zaar. The top doubles tandem in the ITA rankings also comes from Pepperdine, Broadus and Tjen. The duo is 4-1 in the spring season, the only loss coming from the match against No. 2 North Carolina. Broadus was named the WCC Singles Player of the Week and the tandem of Broadus and Tjen earned WCC Doubles Team of the Week honors after good performances at the ITA Indoors. The two teams have faced off once before in the NCAA Super Regional in 2019, with Pepperdine taking the match 4-2 to advance to the NCAA Championships.
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