University of Washington
Clemson
UW Set To Open NCAA Championships Against Clemson
May 10, 2017 | Women's Tennis
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Washington women's tennis team opens up the 2017 NCAA Women's Tennis Championships this Friday May 12th, heading to the Nashville Regional to take on Clemson at 11 a.m. PT in the first round at the Currey Tennis Center.
"The team is super excited to be heading to Nashville this week to take on Clemson," said Stacey Fung. "We have been preparing the right way and working hard since the fall which has gotten us to where we are now."
The No. 31 Huskies enter this season's NCAA Tournament with a 17-9 record, and were last in action at the Pac-12 Championships, picking up an opening round win over Colorado before falling in the second round. The Dawgs have been guided at the No. 1 court in singles this season by Fung, who currently ranks 30th in the country and was recently chosen as an at-large selection for the NCAA Singles Championships in late May. Fung owns a 22-10 record in singles this season, and has gone 15-7 in dual matches, all on court one. After winning 22 singles matches last season as a freshman, she became the first Husky with back-to-back 20-win seasons in singles since Venise Chan and current assistant coach Denise Dy during 2009-2011.
This year's team also matched the program record for 20-match winners in a season set in 2009, with five Huskies hitting the mark including Fung, Kenadi Hance, Miki Kobayashi, Katarina Kopcalic and Alexis Prokopuik.
"I knew from the beginning that this team could accomplish a lot," said Kobayashi. "This team is very special to me and we will make it even more special at the NCAA Tournament."
Clemson currently ranks 31st in the latest ITA National Team Rankings and enters the tournament with a 13-12 record. The Tigers have been led by sophomores Ayan Broomfield and Marie-Alexandre Leduc, who each rank 98th and 121st in the ITA Singles Rankings respectively, and own a doubles ranking of 41st together. The two were recently named to the 2017 All-ACC Second Team at the end of April.
This will be Clemson's 16th consecutive appearance in the NCAA Championships, and 18th time in 20 years under current head coach Nancy Harris.
"We are all so excited and ready for this weekend," said Hance. "We have all put in so much hard work this year, especially these past couple of weeks."
The Dawgs and Tigers will be playing for the chance to face the winner of the regional's other first round match, between the host Vanderbilt and SIU Edwardsville. The Commodores earned the tournament's No. 4 overall seed after going 20-5 this past season, and most recently won the SEC Championship. SIUE earned their spot in the bracket after winning the Ohio Valley Conference Championship, and going undefeated with a 21-0 record. Vandy and SIUE will square off after the completion of UW's match, with a scheduled start time of 2 p.m. PT on Friday.
The winners of the first round matches will face off on Saturday May 13th at 11 a.m. PT.
"We're really just getting started and I can't wait to finish off our season strong," said Fung.
This will be Washington's first NCAA Championships appearance since 2011, and their 14th appearance in the tournament in program history.
Each match will have live scoring available, which can be found at the link above. Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the latest news, content and results on the team, and check in at our website at GoHuskies.com.
Players Mentioned
