The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Missouri
No. 16 Women’s Tennis preview: at Missouri
02.26.2026 | Women's Tennis
The Longhorns play their second of three-straight road matches to open SEC play when they take on the Tigers on Friday.
No. 16 Texas at Missouri
Team Records: Texas (5-3, 0-1 SEC), Missouri (8-3, 0-1 SEC)
When: Friday, Feb. 27, 2025, 1 p.m. CT
Where: Country Club of Missouri, Columbia, Mo.
Live Stats: https://hookem.at/WTN-Stats
Live Video: https://hookem.at/WTN-Watch
Note: Live stream will only be available if played at Green Tennis Center. If played at the Country Club of Missouri there will be no live video.
Notes
-Missouri Series: Texas leads, 17-1
Texas leads the all-time series against Missouri, 17-1, with all but one of those meetings coming as conference opponents in the Big 12 from 1997-2012 and then again last season in the SEC, a match the Longhorns won, 6-1, in Columbia. The lone exception was in 2022, which was a 7-0 sweep for the Longhorns in Austin. The win in the series for the Tigers came in 2003 in Columbia, 4-3. Prior to last season, the last meeting at Missouri had come in 2012 and was a 5-2 Texas win. The Longhorns have limited the Tigers to just 14 combined points in the all-time series, holding a 117-14 scoring advantage.
Last Meeting
#13 Texas 6, Missouri 1
Sunday, March 16, 2025
Columbia, Mo. • Green Tennis Center
Singles – Order of Finish (4,2,1,3,5,6)
1. #70 Ashton Bowers (TEX) def. Mary Brumfield (MIZ) 6-1, 3-6, 6-1
2. #69 Eszter Meri (TEX) def. Inah Canete (MIZ) 6-2, 6-3
3. Vivian Ovrootsky (TEX) def. Lailaa Bashir (MIZ) 6-1, 3-6, 6-4
4. Charlotte Kempenaers-Pocz (TEX) def. Zoe Lazar (MIZ) 6-1, 6-3
5. Korina Roso (MIZ) def. Salma Drugdova (TEX) 7-6 (5), 6-4
6. Shachf Lieberman (TEX) def. Gian Octa (MIZ) 7-5, 6-0
Doubles – Order of Finish (2,3)
1. Charlotte Kempenaers-Pocz/Sabina Zeynalova (TEX) vs. Mary Brumfield/Korina Roso (MIZ) 5-3, unf.
2. Ashton Bowers/Salma Drugdova (TEX) def. Andrea Artimedi/Inah Canete (MIZ) 6-2
3. Carmen Herea/Eszter Meri (TEX) def. Lailaa Bashir/Zoe Lazar (MIZ) 6-3
-ITA Team Rankings
Texas was tabbed No. 12 in the preseason poll released January 7 by the ITA after finishing last season at No. 13. The Longhorns were then No. 17 on January 21 and No. 18 on January 28. After a pair of top-10 wins, Texas moved back up to No. 10 on February 11 but is now No. 16. The Longhorns closed the 2023-24 season No. 11, just outside of the Top 10 where they had finished each of the previous six years. UT earned a No. 6 ranking in 2018, No. 9 in 2019, No. 4 in 2020, No. 1 in both 2021 and 2022, and No. 7 in 2023.
-ITA Individual National Rankings
Texas
Singles
No. 3 Carmen Herea
No. 21 Anastasia Abbagnato
Doubles
No. 28 Ariana Anazagasty-Pursoo/Anastasia Abbagnato
No. 43 Elizabeth Ionescu/Carmen Herea
Missouri
Singles
N/A
Doubles
N/A
So close on the road against the top-five
Texas fell at No. 5 Texas A&M, 4-3, on Feb. 23 in the Cotton Holdings Lone Star Showdown at the Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station. The Longhorns went the distance in the doubles point, pushing the deciding match at No. 1 to a deuce point that resulted in a 7-5 win by the Aggies. Just before that, Texas had taken a 6-4 victory at No. 2 after Texas A&M claimed a 6-2 win at No. 3. The Aggies followed with singles wins at Nos. 2 and 5 for a 3-0 lead, but the Longhorns had won the first set in the other four matches. Texas secured two of those matches by Christasha McNeil at No. 4 and Elizabeth Ionescu at No. 6 to pull within 3-2, but Texas A&M rallied from down a set for a win at No. 3 to clinch. Carmen Hera then completed the match with a three-set victory at No. 1 for the final.
-Sweeping the Vaqueros
Texas swept UTRGV, 7-0, on February 15 at the Texas Tennis Center in just their second home match of the season to move to 5-2 overall. Both doubles and singles were played out with the Longhorns only dropping one set throughout the match, which came in a tiebreaker. They took the doubles point with wins at Nos. 1-3 in that order, and then followed with singles victories by Elizabeth Ionescu at No. 3, Mathilde Ngijol-Carré at No. 4, Eszter Meri at No. 2 for the clinch, Kate Mansfield at No. 5, Salma Drugdova at No. 6, and Carmen Herea at No. 1.
-Abbagnato named SEC Women's Tennis Freshman of the Week
Anastasia Abbagnato was named the SEC Women's Tennis Freshman of the Week on February 11. It marked the first weekly SEC honor of her career and she became the second-straight Longhorn to earn the accolade, following Elizabeth Ionescu the week before. Abbagnato posted a combined 5-1 singles and doubles record, including four ranked victories with three in singles and one in doubles in wins over No. 12 Vanderbilt and No. 7 Duke after a narrow 4-3 defeat to No. 6 Oklahoma at the ITA National Indoor Championships. Abbagnato's singles wins all came at No. 2 over No. 12 Julia Garcia Ruiz of Oklahoma, No. 40 Bridget Stammel of Vanderbilt, and No. 120 Liv Hovde of Duke. The win over Stammel also clinched the overall match against Vanderbilt. She also won doubles matches with both Anazagasty-Pursoo and Mathilde Ngijol-Carré.
-Two top-12 wins at the ITA Indoors
After pushing No. 6 Oklahoma to the limit in a 4-3 defeat in the round of 16 of the ITA Indoors on February 6, the Longhorns earned a pair of top-12 wins over No. 12 Vanderbilt (4-1) and No. 7 Duke (4-3) in consolation matches in Urbana, Ill., on February 7 and 8, respectively. After the Commodores claimed a tight doubles point with wins at Nos. 2 and 1 that surrounded a win for the Longhorns at No. 3, Texas rattled of four-straight singles victories by Christasha McNeil at No. 3, Elizabeth Ionescu at No. 5, Carmen Herea at No. 1, and Anastasia Abbagnato at No. 2 for the clinch. Against the Blue Devils, the Longhorns had rallied from a 2-0 deficit after Duke claimed the doubles point and the first singles contest at No. 4. Texas then put together three-straight singles wins by Eszter Meri at No. 3, and Ionescu at No. 6, and Abbagnato at No. 2. The Blue Devils evened the overall match at 3-3 with a win at No. 1, setting the stage for the clinch by Kate Mansfield.
-Ionescu named SEC Women's Tennis Freshman of the Week
Elizabeth Ionescu was named the SEC Women's Tennis Freshman of the Week for the week of January 28-February 3. It marks the first weekly SEC honor of her career and first for the Longhorns this season. Ionescu went a combined 4-0 in singles and doubles, including the first singles win of her collegiate career, which came over Pia Kranholdt of Iowa at No. 4 that clinched the overall match. Ionescu and partner Carmen Herea also clinched the doubles point against Wisconsin. Ionescu joined the team in January and had only played one singles and one doubles match in her collegiate career prior to this past weekend.
-Nine-straight trips to the ITA National Indoor Championships
In advancing out of the 2026 ITA Kickoff Weekend Texas Regional, the Longhorns advanced to the ITA National Indoor Championships for the ninth-straight year. Texas reached the quarterfinals in six of those trips, including five of the last six (2019, 2021-25), while advancing all the way to the final in 2021 when they were edged by then No. 1 North Carolina, 4-3, in what would be the only loss of the season on the way to winning the first of back-to-back NCAA National Championships. That was UT's second all-time appearance in the final, along with 2006 against Stanford. The Longhorns have also won two matches in six of the last seven tournaments, including consolation matches in 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2026 (2021 began in the quarters).
-Sweep of Big Ten road trip
Texas completed a sweep of their two-match Big Ten road trip with a 5-2 victory over Wisconsin at the Nielsen Tennis Stadium on February 1. The Longhorns used a top-five win at No. 1 doubles and combined it with a win at No. 3 to claim the doubles point. After Wisconsin picked up a win at No. 3 singles, Texas followed with singles wins by Ariana Anazagasty-Pursoo at No. 5, Elizabeth Ionescu at No. 6, Carmen Herea at No. 1, and Eszter Meri at No. 4. The Badgers then closed the scoring with a win at No. 2.
-First win in first visit to Iowa City
The Longhorns earned a 6-1 win at Iowa on January 30 in their first-ever road match against the Hawkeyes. Texas captured the doubles point with wins at Nos. 2 and 3 and followed with singles wins by Ariana Anazagasty-Pursoo at No. 5 and Carmen Herea at No. 1, Elizabeth Ionescu at No. 4 for the clinch, Salma Drugdova at No. 6, and Christasha McNeil at No. 3.
-Joffe in Year 11
Head Coach Howard Joffe is in his 11th season leading the UT program. Under Joffe's leadership, Texas claimed back-to-back NCAA team championships in 2021 and 2022 and has finished each of the last eight years in the top 13 of the final ITA national polls, earning year-end rankings of No. 6 in 2018, No. 9 in 2019, No. 4 in 2020, No. 1 in both 2021 and 2022, No. 7 in 2023, No. 11 in 2024, and No. 13 in 2025. The Longhorns also captured four Big 12 regular-season championships (2018, 2019, 2021 and 2023-co) and four Big 12 postseason tournament titles (2018, 2021, 2022 and 2023) in their last six chances (2020 season canceled due to COVID-19).
The 2021 ITA Division I Women's National Coach of the Year, Joffe has registered a 211-60 (.779) mark in his time at Texas. During his 20 seasons as a collegiate head coach, he has tallied a 342-121 (.739) dual-match record. Peyton Stearns claimed the Honda Sport Award for Tennis and the ITA National Player of the Year in 2022. Joffe has helped six Longhorns earn a total of eight ITA All-America honors in singles (Breaunna Addison in 2016, Bianca Turati in 2018, Anna Turati and Bianca Turati in 2020, Stearns in both 2021 and 2022, Kylie Collins in 2022, and Malaika Rapolu in 2024) and two duos earn ITA All-America accolades in doubles (Kylie Collins and Lulu Sun in 2021 and Stearns and Allura Zamarripa in 2022). Stearns became the first player in program history to win the NCAA Singles Championship in 2022, while Collins and Sun reached the finals of the NCAA Doubles Championship in 2021. In addition, 19 players have registered a combined 26 All-Big 12 singles and 22 All-Big 12 doubles selections in Joffe's tenure in Austin.
-Back from 2025
Texas will have a different look from 2025, but at the same time return a few familiar faces. The roster will feature six returners, four of whom had match experience, including sophomores Carmen Herea, Eszter Meri, Ariana Anazagasty-Pursoo and Salma Drugdova, along with redshirt freshman Audrey Deatherage and Lucy Schmeil.
-Five newcomers arrive for their first dual match season on the 40
The Longhorns add five new faces for 2026, all who are expected to be impact players, starting with Christasha McNeil of Lindenhurst, N.Y., and Mathilde Ngijol-Carré of Paris, France, who arrived in the fall. Three more joined the team in January, including Anastasia Abbagnato from Palermo, Italy, Elizabeth Ionescu from York, Pa., and Kate Mansfield of London, England.
-Summer/Fall Wrap-up
A number of players on the roster spent the summer and fall nursing injuries, leading to some of them not qualifying for fall ITA rankings. However, Eszter Meri captured the singles gold medal at the FISU World University Games in July, while Carmen Herea finished as the singles runner-up at one of the fall majors in the ITA All-Americans, and then was a quarterfinalist in the NCAA Singles Championships.
Players Mentioned
