ORLANDO, Fla. – The No. 29 UCF women's tennis team (6-6) will look to continue to improve its home record when it hosts No. 57 Yale and No. 5 NC State this week. The Bulldogs come to visit on Tuesday, Mar. 14 and the match against the Wolfpack will take place on Friday, Mar. 17. Both matches have a first serve time of 5 p.m. at the USTA National Campus.
LAST TIME OUT
The Knights went 1-1 last week, with a strong 5-2 victory over No. 41 Penn State and a difficult 4-1 loss to No. 11 Virginia. The squad earned the doubles point in the match against Penn State and continued its streak of winning the match after clinching the doubles point. Singles points were earned by No. 30 Marie Mattel, Stefani Webb, Sophia Biolay, and Nandini Sharma to secure the victory for the Knights. The match against Virginia proved a bit more difficult for the Black and Gold. It took one doubles court and just narrowly missed out on the other needed for the point in a tie-break set. Shifting into singles, Webb earned her first ranked win of her collegiate career on court two, securing a straight set victory over the 124th-ranked singles player from Virginia. This proved to be not enough for the Knights, who dropped the next three singles courts, falling short in the defeat.
KNIGHTS IN THE POLLS
The Knights dropped out of the top-25 teams in the ITA polls, but remained in the top-30, coming in at No. 30 after the heartbreaking loss to Miami. This is the lowest the squad has been ranked this spring season. Senior Mattel continued her march up the rankings, rising to No. 30 in the latest ITA singles rankings. She made another mark in the record book, now tied with Valeriya Zeleva for the ninth-highest singles player in program history. Mattel and Sophia Biolay checked back into the doubles rankings, coming in at No. 61. The duo competed in its first match together of the spring season against TCU, handily taking down the 44th-ranked doubles pairing (6-1).
THE OPPONENTS
No. 57 Yale comes to Orlando with an 8-5 record, currently on a two-game win streak. The team is coming off a pair of wins over the past weekend. It took down St. John's (4-2) and Fordham (4-3), both matches taking place at home. The Bulldogs are led by freshman Sophia Zaslow, who is currently 9-4 in singles, winning her last two matches in straight sets. Zaslow started off the season on a six-game win streak, only dropping one set in that time to her opponent from the University of Pennsylvania. This will be the fifth time that the two teams meet, with the Knights leading the all-time series 3-1.
No. 5 NC State has had a phenomenal spring season, going 11-2 thus far. Its only losses come from Vanderbilt and Miami in tight 4-3 decisions. After the defeat in Miami, the Wolfpack quickly bounced back to take down Florida State 6-1 in Tallahassee. USTA will be the third stop on the five-game road trip for the team, who won't play another home match until Mar. 31. In the latest ITA singles rankings, there are five members of the Wolfpack featured, highlighted by No. 9 Alana Smith. Smith is 7-2 in singles for the spring season, earning three ranked wins as well. Also seen in the singles rankings is No. 18 Amelia Rajecki, No. 35 Diana Shnaider, No. 55 Abigail Rencheli, and No. 123 Sophie Abrams. Freshman Shnaider also has an impressive professional career to accompany her collegiate career, boasting a current WTA ranking of 94. The all-time series history is currently led by NC State, with a 1-2 record.
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