The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Stanford
Women’s Tennis Preview: No. 1 Stanford
01.29.2014 | Women's Tennis
Longhorns defending national champion Cardinal Friday at Penick-Allison.
WHAT: No. 17 Texas (3-0) welcomes No. 1 Stanford (2-0), the defending NCAA champion.
WHEN: Friday, Jan. 31 – 2:30 p.m. CT
WHERE: Penick-Allison Tennis Center – Austin, Texas
LIVE SCORING: Available at TexasSports.com
LAST MEETING vs. STANFORD: The Cardinal defeated the Longhorns by a 7-0 count on March 20, 2013 in Stanford, alif. Stanford is making its first visit to Austin since 2010.
LAST TIME OUT: Texas won the Austin site of the ITA Kick-Off Weekend event (Jan. 25-26) at Penick-Allison to earn a spot in next month's ITA National Team Indoor Championship.
The Longhorns led off with a 4-1 win over No. 23 Auburn (Jan. 25). UT finished off the ITA Kick-Off Weekend sweep with a 4-1 win over No. 22 Rice.
NEXT TIME OUT: Texas opens play at the ITA National Team Indoor Championship on Feb. 7 at the University of Virginia. UT will play at least three matches at the four-day event. The Longhorns' first-round opponent has yet to be announced.
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. UT remains at the No. 17 slot in this week's poll (Jan. 29).
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 (NED-ah koh-per-CHEE-nah) made her Longhorns earlier this month and picked up her first college win at the Miami Spring Invite. Koprcina is 2-0 in dual-match play with wins over UTSA's Isabelle Jonsson and Rice's Liat Zimmermann.
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.
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 (RAHT-nick-ah BAHT-rah) 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.
