The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Women’s Tennis’ Herea, Abbagnato named ITA All-Americans
05.26.2026 | Women's Tennis
Sophomore Carmen Herea and freshman Anastasia Abbagnato both earned the honor in singles.
Austin – Texas Women's Tennis sophomore Carmen Herea and freshman Anastasia Abbagnato officially received All-America honors from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) on Tuesday. Both earned the accolade in singles to garner the first All-America recognition of their careers.
Herea and Abbagnato become the ninth and 10th players at Texas under head coach Howard Joffe to become All-Americans in singles or doubles for a total of 14 honors since 2016. It is also the fourth time under Joffe that Texas has had multiple All-Americans in the same season with the most recent being in 2022 when both Peyton Stearns and Kylie Collins did so in singles, while Stearns and Allura Zamarripa did so in doubles.
The criteria for ITA All-America singles honors include winning the ITA All-American Championship, advancing to the round of 16 at the NCAA Individual Championships, or finishing in the top 20 of the final ITA Singles Rankings. All-America recognition is awarded to doubles teams who win the ITA All-American Championship, reach the NCAA Championship quarterfinals, or finish in the top 10 in the final ITA National Doubles Rankings.
Here finished the season ranked No. 3 in singles by the ITA, while she had also reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA Singles Championships in November. Abbagnato qualified by closing at No. 13 in the singles rankings.
Herea, who was also a First-Team All-SEC selection this season, rose to No. 1 in the ITA singles rankings and became the fourth Longhorn since 1995 to do so, including Stearns in 2022, Bianca Turati in 2018 and Kelly Pace in 1995. Additionally, Herea was runner-up at the ITA All-American Championships in September as part of a 23-8 overall singles record that included a 16-6 mark in dual matches, all of which came at No. 1, and 8-2 in the SEC. She registered five top-15 victories and 12 top-50 wins and tied for the team lead with four overall clinches.
Abbagnato also received First-Team All-SEC accolades this season and reached a season high of No. 6 in the ITA singles rankings during the year. After arriving at UT in January, she compiled a 14-8 overall singles record, all in dual matches and mainly at No. 2, and went 8-4 in the SEC. She notched three top-15 victories and eight top-50 singles wins.
Both players helped Texas advance to the NCAA Round of 16, which is the sixth-straight year of reaching at least that far, along with posting a 19-8 overall record and 11-4 mark in the SEC.
