The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
TCU
No. 22 Women’s Tennis Preview: Big 12 Championships
04.23.2014 | Women's Tennis
Longhorns take on sixth-seeded host TCU in Friday’s quarterfinals.
WHAT: No. 22 Texas (11-11, 6-3 Big 12) opens postseason play this week at the Big 12 Championships. The third-seeded Longhorns earned a first-round bye and will take on sixth-seeded host TCU in Friday's quarterfinals.
WHEN/WHERE:
No. 22 Texas at TCU
Friday, April 25 – 3 p.m. CT
Friedman Tennis Center – Fort Worth, Texas
LIVE SCORING: GoFrogs.com
Big 12 Semifinals
Saturday, April 26 – 3 p.m. CT – Fort Worth, Texas
Big 12 Finals
Sunday, April 27 – 1 p.m. CT – Fort Worth, Texas
BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIPS CENTRAL: HERE
BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIPS HISTORY
Texas has won nine Big 12 Championship tournaments and is the event's two-time defending champion. Texas defeated host Oklahoma (quarters), Texas Tech (semifinals) and Oklahoma State (finals) to win the 2013 event in Norman, Okla. Texas defeated host Texas A&M in the finals to win the 2012 event.
Texas has reached the finals at the Big 12 Championships a league-leading 16 times in the event's 17-year history. UT head coach Patty Fendick-McCain has taken the Longhorns to the finals in each of her previous eight Big 12 Championships appearances.
LAST MEETING vs. TCU: Texas suffered a 5-2 defeat to TCU on March 14 in Fort Worth.
I.T.A. NATIONAL RANKINGS (April 22, Texas only)
Singles
15. Breaunna Addison
104. Ratnika Batra
120. Elizabeth Begley
ADDISON, KOPRCINA AND HORN WIN BIG 12 SINGLES TITLES
The Big 12 Conference announced Texas sophomore Breaunna Addison and freshmen Neda Koprcina and Pippa Horn as the league champions of their respective singles positions. Addison wins the Big 12 title at No. 1 singles while Koprcina and Horn win league titles at Nos. 4 and 5 singles, respectively. Koprcina is a co-champion at No. 4 singles.
For the first time ever at UT and just the second time in the 18-year history of Big 12 tennis, Texas crowns two freshmen as Big 12 singles champions in the same season. This marks the second out of the last three seasons that the Longhorns secured Big 12 league titles at three of the six singles positions.
Addison became UT's third Big 12 champion at No. 1 singles and the first since Petra Dizdar in 2005. The All-American collects her second straight Big 12 individual crown after winning the league title at No. 2 singles last season as a first-semester freshman.
Addison went a perfect 8-0 in league play and won 16 of 17 sets played at No. 1 singles. The Boca Raton, Fla., native is 16-1 in two seasons of Big 12 dual-match play. Addison is one of only two players this season to defeat college tennis' top-ranked player, North Carolina's Jamie Loeb. Addison's four losses in dual-match play have come at the hands of top-10 opponents.
Koprcina, like Addison last season, wins a Big 12 league title as a first-semester freshman. The native of Split, Croatia compiled a 6-3 mark in league play, including a 5-3 record at No. 4 singles. Texas has won Big 12 individual titles three consecutive years at No. 4 singles.
BIG 12 EXCELLENCE
Texas head coach Patty Fendick-McCain and her Longhorns have excelled in Big 12 Conference play during Fendick-McCain's nine-year tenure on the Forty Acres. The former Australian Open doubles champion is the only Big 12 men's or women's tennis coach to send his or her team to the finals of the Big 12 Championships in eight straight seasons.
Fendick-McCain and the Longhorns have won the last two Big 12 tournament titles. Texas hasn't finished outside the top-three in the Big 12 team standings in Fendick-McCain's tenure. Fendick-McCain boasts a 77-15 (.837) mark in Big 12 regular season matches.
COME ONE, COME ALL
Texas took on arguably the most challenging non-conference schedule in all of college tennis in the opening months of the season. The Longhorns faced nine ITA top-25 teams and faced a top-35 opponent in 11 of their 13 non-conference matches. All totaled, Texas played 12 of its 22 matches against top-25 competition and 15 of 22 against top-35 foes.
CONFERENCE DOMINANCE PAYS OFF FOR ADDISON
The Big 12 Conference announced April 9 the selection of University of Texas sophomore Breaunna Addison as the league's Women's Tennis Player of the Week. Addison picked up her first such honor from the league and won all six of her conference matches prior to receiving the award.
The reigning Big 12 Freshman of the Year and frontrunner for Big 12 Player of the Year has won 12 of her last 13 matches and hasn't dropped a contest since March 8, when she fell to Michigan's 10th-ranked Emina Bektas in a third-set super-tiebreaker indoors.
Addison's win over Baylor's Kiah Generette marked her 11th win over a ranked opponent in dual-match play. Addison has won her last 13 singles sets, all in league play at No. 1 singles. Addison is the Big 12 Conference's highest-ranked singles player at No. 15 nationally.
Addison boasts a 24-9 overall singles record and a 16-4 mark in dual matches at No. 1 singles. Additionally, Addison and senior Elizabeth Begley hold a 5-2 record at No. 1 doubles in league play.
Addison owns a 16-1 career mark in Big 12 regular season matches and has won 32 of 35 sets in those matches. The All-American holds a 20-1 overall record against Big 12 foes (includes fall tournament play, regular season and Big 12 Championship matches).
Last season, Addison became the third Longhorn and the first UT freshman to reach the singles semifinals at the NCAA Championships. She collected the first win by a UT freshman in the NCAA Championship singles draw since Sandy Sureephong in 1996. Addison was the first UT freshman to earn ITA singles All-America honors since Susan Gilchrist in 1990.
BEGLEY BACK ON TRACK
After dropping her first two league matches, senior Elizabeth Begley finished the regular season with wins in five league contests at No. 2 singles.
The Houston native has been a key contributor in conference play the last two seasons and has won Big 12 individual titles at No. 6 singles (2012) and No. 4 singles (2013).
The only player to play at all six singles positions for Patty Fendick McCain in her 17 seasons as a collegiate head coach, Begley boasts a 22-7 mark in Big 12 regular season matches and a 5-0 career singles mark at the Big 12 Championships.
FRESH FACES COMING ON STRONG
The middle of the Texas singles lineup features a trio of freshmen who collectively hold a 21-6 singles record in Big 12 play. Freshman Ratnika Batra won eight of nine matches and 16 of 19 singles sets in league play, mostly at No. 3 singles.
First-semester freshman Neda Koprcina won six of her last seven league contests at Nos. 3 and 4 singles in league play on her way to a league title at No. 4 singles. Koprcina posted a win last month over USC's 70th-ranked Giuliana Olmos. Freshman Pippa Horn posted a 7-2 mark in league play at Nos. 4 and 5 singles.
STARTING FROM SCRATCH
Texas implemented new doubles teams at all three dual-match positions in advance of Big 12 play, and the move has largely paid off. Breaunna Addison and Elizabeth Begley won their first four league matches at No. 1 doubles and finished with a 5-2 league mark.
Freshmen Ratnika Batra and Neda Koprcina teamed up to win six of their last seven matches at second doubles. Senior Juliana Gajic and freshman Pippa Horn won five matches in league play at third doubles.
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 previous two seasons. The Houston native earned her first ITA ranking singles ranking last fall and ranks 120th in the latest ITA singles poll.
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. Freshman Neda Koprcina is Croatia's reigning under-18 national champion.
