The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
UCLA
Women’s Tennis Preview: No. 5 UCLA (ITA National Team Indoor Championship)
02.05.2014 | Women's Tennis
Longhorns making their third consecutive appearance at the ITA National Team Indoor Championship.
WHAT: No. 17 Texas (3-1) makes its third consecutive appearance at the ITA (Intercollegiate Tennis Association) National Team Indoor Championship. The Longhorns open the 16-team event against No. 5 UCLA, the tournament's fourth seed.
All 16 teams are guaranteed to play at least three tournament matches. The winner of Friday's Texas-UCLA match will take on either fifth-seeded USC or Alabama in Saturday's quarterfinals.
WHEN:
No. 17 Texas vs. No. 5 UCLA
Friday, Feb. 7 – 2:30 p.m. CT
Remaining match times for Saturday, Sunday and Monday are TBA.
WHERE: Boar's Head Sports Club – Charlottesville, Va.
EVENT WEB SITE: HERE
LAST MEETING vs. UCLA: UCLA defeated the Longhorns by a 6-1 count on March 15, 2005 in Los Angeles. The all-time series between the two schools is knotted at 10-10.
LAST TIME OUT: Texas played host to No. 1 Stanford and suffered a 6-1 defeat on Jan. 31 in Austin. UT freshman Ratnika Batra defeated Stanford's 34th-ranked Caroline Doyle in straight sets.
NEXT TIME OUT: Texas returns home on Saturday, Feb. 15 and hosts No. 16 Northwestern. UT welcomes No. 15 Vanderbilt on Sunday, Feb. 16.
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 the most recent ITA 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 and is 3-0 in dual matches.
LONGHORNS WELCOME NEDA KOPRCINA
First-semester freshman Neda Koprcina (NED-ah koh-per-CHEE-nah) made her Longhorns debut last month and picked up her first college win at the Miami Spring Invite. Koprcina is 2-1 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 UT freshman to do so.
The Boca Raton, Fla., native became the first Texas 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 singles ranking last fall.
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.
