The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Auburn
Women’s Tennis Preview: Auburn (ITA Kick-Off Weekend)
01.24.2014 | Women's Tennis
Longhorns host Auburn on Saturday, take on Rice or Florida State on Sunday.
WHAT: No. 17 Texas (1-0) serves as one of 15 host sites for the national ITA Kick-Off Weekend event.
Two matches will be contested both Saturday and Sunday (Jan. 25-26) at UT's Penick-Allison Tennis Center. Texas will take on Auburn in the first match Saturday at 10 a.m. CT. Rice will meet Florida State in Saturday's second match at 1 p.m. Central.
Saturday's losing teams will go head-to-head on Sunday at 10 a.m. CT. Saturday's winning teams will face off Sunday at 1 p.m. CT. The winner of that match will earn an automatic berth into next month's ITA National Team Indoor Championship.
SCHEDULE
Saturday, Jan. 25
10 a.m. CT: Texas vs. Auburn
1 p.m. CT: Rice vs. Florida State
Sunday, Jan. 26
10 a.m. CT: First round losing teams
1 p.m. CT: First round winning teams
WHERE: Penick-Allison Tennis Center – Austin, Texas
LIVE SCORING: Available at TexasSports.com
LAST MEETING vs. AUBURN: This is the first meeting between the two schools in women's tennis.
LAST TIME OUT: In its season opener, Texas defeated UTSA by a 6-1 count in Austin (Jan. 22).
TEXAS RANKS NO. 17 IN PRESEASON POLL
Texas ranks 17th in the preseason women's college tennis poll released Jan. 2 by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA). UT is the poll's highest-ranked school from the Big 12 Conference.
Texas sophomore All-American Breaunna Addison ranks 22nd in the ITA preseason singles rankings after reaching the singles semifinals last season at the NCAA Championships.
The Big 12's highest-ranked singles player, Addison joins freshman Pippa Horn as the league's top-ranked doubles duo at No. 21 in the ITA preseason doubles rankings. Freshman Ratnika Batra ranks 77th in the women's singles rankings.
LONGHORNS WELCOME NEDA KOPRCINA
First-semester freshman Neda Koprcina made her Longhorns debut last weekend and picked up her first college win at the Miami Spring Invite.
Ranked as high as No. 828 in the WTA world tennis rankings, Koprcina is Croatia's under-18 national champion. The native of Split, Croatia trained in her hometown and in Belgium at the Justine Henin Tennis Academy.
"Neda is an exciting addition to Texas Tennis," said UT head coach Patty Fendick-McCain. "Neda is a hard-working individual who was shaped by an extremely competitive environment in her native Croatia. We are thrilled to have her at Texas."
Texas welcomes another newcomer next season in the form of Ryann Foster of Sunrise, Fla. Foster has been ranked as high as No. 940 in singles and No. 953 in doubles in the WTA world rankings.
THE 2013-14 LONGHORNS
Under ninth-year head coach Patty Fendick-McCain, Texas returns six student-athletes from the 2012-13 squad that won UT's second consecutive Big 12 Championship and landed at No. 17 in the final ITA team rankings.
As a first-semester freshman last spring, Breaunna Addison became just the third Longhorn ever to reach the singles semifinals at the NCAA Championships and the first freshman to do so.
The Boca Raton, Fla., native became the first UT freshman to earn ITA singles All-America honors since Susan Gilchrist in 1990. Addison tallied 30 singles wins and was selected as the Big 12 Conference Freshman of the Year.
Senior Elizabeth Begley has won two Big 12 individual titles and tallied 62 singles victories in her last two seasons. The Houston native earned her first ITA ranking this month and is featured at No. 124 in singles.
Former Big 12 Freshman of the Year Lina Padegimaite returns after posting 13 dual-match wins last season as a junior. Classmate Annat Rabinovich added a pair of dual-match wins last season.
Texas also returns senior Juliana Gajic and sophomore Lana Groenvynck, who clinched UT's Big 12 Championship semifinal win over Texas Tech last season. Freshman Ratnika Batra reached the second round of the girls' singles draw at the 2012 Roland Garros (French Open) Junior Championships. Freshman Pippa Horn (Norwich, Norfolk, England) competed at the last three Wimbledon Junior Championships.
