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SAN FRANCISCO – The University of San Francisco women's tennis team will look to continue its breakout 2012-13 season this week at the West Coast Conference Championships in San Diego, Calif. The Dons finished 6-13 overall a year ago.
The Dons ended the regular season with a 4-4 conference mark, good for fifth-place behind Saint Mary's, Pepperdine, Santa Clara and San Diego.
San Diego, currently ranked 56
th by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, captured its first conference championship last season by unseating defending-champion Pepperdine in the finals.
Saint Mary's Jenny Jullien heads south as the highest-ranked singles player in the WCC, checking in at No. 23 in the latest rankings. Jullien is joined in the top-125 by Santa Clara's Katie Le (No. 28), Pepperdine's Lorraine Guillermo (No. 34) and Khunpak Issara (No, 72), San Diego's Laura Claus (No. 79), San Francisco's
Andrea Ka (No, 82) and Loyola Marymount's April Bisharat (No. 100).
The Dons would like to improve on their seventh-place finish in last year's tournament, but head coach
Hilary Somers knows the WCC tournament poses a formidable challenge, even for the much-improved Dons squad.
“Our whole conference is just getting so much stronger,” said Somers. “Not only did we get a lot better from last year to this year, but every other program really bumped things up as well.”
How the Dons fare in San Diego will largely rest upon the shoulders of three talented freshman –
Andrea Ka,
Sofia Holmberg and
Brooke Irish – that will look to build on successful first seasons when they make their WCC Championships debut this week. The trio is responsible for 58.8 percent (40-of-68) of USF's singles points this season and each has posted a winning record and double-digit victories.
Marina Nikolic (12-7),
Milica Hadzi-Tanovic (7-11),
Yurie Hashiguchi (8-8) and
Melinda Akerbrant (1-7) round out the list of Dons that may see action in singles play.
The fifth-seeded Dons open the single-elimination tournament on Wednesday, April 24 when they take on the eighth-seeded Portland Pilots at 9:30 a.m. The winner advances to play on Thursday at the same time.
Fans can follow the action in real-time by clicking
HERE.
First Round Matchups – Wednesday, April 24
#4 San Diego vs. #9 Gonzaga
#5 San Francisco vs. #8 Portland
#6 BYU vs. #7 Loyola Marymount
*
all matches at 9:30 a.m.*
