The 2016-17 Season Review
June 30, 2017 | Women's Tennis
The 2016-17 season for the Washington women's tennis team is officially in the books, but today we look back on the historic season that ended as one of the most successful in recent history.
The fall opened up with the duo of Nour Abbes and Miki Kobayashi earning an ITA Doubles Ranking of 13th in the country, while Stacey Fung came in at 105th in singles. Earning an invite to the ITA All-American Championships, Abbes and Kobayashi would collect two wins in the main draw, including a huge 8-5 win over No. 5 Miho Kowase and Anna Sanford of Ohio State.
Playing in the Wolverine Invitational, the USTA/ITA Northwest Regional, and the David Kent Invitational, the Huskies enjoyed a busy yet successful fall season. Newcomers Alexis Prokopuik and Katarina Kopcalic each collected 6 wins during the fall, while Fung earned eight. Both Fung and Prokopuik had successful runs at the ITA Northwest Regional singles main draw, each making it to the round of 16.
Washington opened the regular season on the road, first heading southwest to face Hawai'i, where they picked up a 6-1 win before taking down Kansas State 7-0 the following day. The Dawgs would return to the mainland and continue their road trip, heading down to take on head coach Robin Stephenson's alma mater, Alabama. Trailing in the match 0-3 and on the break of falling to the Tide, freshman Kopcalic would put the Huskies on the board first, followed by Prokopuik. On court three, Kobayashi tied the match with her first ranked singles win of the season, before Kenadi Hance would battle back and win an incredible third set 7-6 (4). This was the first comeback from 0-3 in program history since the NCAA moved to the current dual match format.
Following their big win the Huskies would remain in Tuscaloosa, Ala. and defeat Illinois 5-2 to move to 4-0 on the season. On January 28th, Washington finally returned home, where they hosted a doubleheader with Portland and Seattle at the Nordstrom Tennis Center, picking up two 6-1 victories.
Heading back out on the road, Washington traveled to Texas first, dropping their first matches of the season to TCU and Baylor. The following weekend UW would head back out on the road, but pick up two wins over Saint Mary's and San Diego State to push their record to 8-2.
With the ITA moving to a computer ranking system mid-February, Washington would make their first appearance on the ITA Team Rankings at 34th in the country, and back it up with results, defeating Houston and UC Santa Barbara in two shutouts at home. Through the team's first 12 matches at this point, junior transfer Prokopuik would sit at 10-1 in singles after going on an eight-match unbeaten streak.
Finishing out their non-conference schedule, the now 25th ranked Huskies would fall to No. 11 Oklahoma State, before bouncing back with a win over No. 38 Northwestern two days later. The Dawgs sat at 11-3 through their first 14 matches, and were ready to head to conference play.
Hosting Oregon at Bill Quillian stadium, Washington would fall in a tight match with the Ducks 3-4 before rebounding with two Pac-12 road wins the following weekend over Utah and Colorado.
Returning back to campus, Washington hosted No. 20 UCLA for their third ranked opponent in the last six matches, falling 1-4 on March 31st. On Sunday April 2nd, the Huskies matched up with No. 39 USC, and once again found themselves in a tough spot down 0-3; but just as they did previously against Alabama, Washington didn't back down.
With the Trojans a win away from clinching the shutout victory over Washington, Kobayashi would clinch her match in two sets to give the Dawgs life, with Kopcalic coming up with a clutch victory as she had multiple times before. On court one, Fung, then ranked at 118th in the country, played one of her toughest matches of the season, and bested No. 20 Gabby Smith on court one 6-2, 6-4. While Washington had tied the match back at 3-3 with USC, Kenadi Hance was in a battle on court four, in a back-and-forth second set after falling in the first 6-2.
Against No. 96 Zoe Katz, Hance would keep the Huskies' hopes alive with a 7-5 second set win, before using the momentum to win the third 6-1 and seal the comeback win for UW. For the second time this season, Washington would come back from a 0-3 hole and win, thanks to a final clincher by Hance.
The win marked the first victory over the Trojans for Washington since 2009 in the NCAA Tournament to advance to the Sweet 16, and the first regular season win over USC since 2003.
Coming off their biggest win of the season, the Huskies advanced four spots in the ITA Team Rankings, while Fung earned a career-best singles rank of 50th and Kobayashi was named the Pac-12 Player of the Week. After earning two more conference wins at home the following weekend over Arizona and Arizona State, Fung would continue her rise, coming in at No. 35 after picking up two more ranked wins.
Falling in two tough road matchups with No. 16 California and No. 10 Stanford, the Huskies would end their season on a high note, defeating Washington State in Pullman, Wash. 4-0 to move their record to 16-8 and 5-5 in the Pac-12.
In the conference tournament, UW would open with a 4-0 win over Colorado in Ojai, Calf., but fall to California in the next round to bring their schedule to a close. On May 2nd, for the 15th time in program history and first time since 2011, the Washington Huskies earned a trip to the NCAA Tournament and would matchup with Clemson in the opening round.
After going up 2-1 over the Tigers in the match, Washington would be unable to find the win, falling 2-4 to Clemson.
However Washington wasn't finished, as All-Pac-12 Second Team selection Stacey Fung would earn an invite to the NCAA Singles Championships, matching up with No. 57 Carol Zi Yang of UNLV. After a tough first set that Fung would ultimately come out on top of 7-6 (4), the Vancouver, Canada native would advance to the second round with a 6-2 win in the second. Facing Georgia's Ellen Perez in the following round, Fung dropped a 7-5, 6-3 contest.
With their season officially at an end, the accolades would pour in for the Huskies, as Fung was named to the All-Pac-12 Second Team, with Kobayashi earning honorable mention. Abbes was selected to the Pac-12 All-Academic Second Team, as Fung, Hance and Kobayashi earned honorable mention.
Washington's 17 wins on the year mark the most in a single season for the program since 2009, while for only the second time in UW history, five student-athletes recorded 20 or more singles wins.
The 2017-18 year looks bright for the Huskies, as all five 20-game winners, Fung, Hance, Kobayashi, Kopcalic, and Prokopuik, are set to return. Stephenson and the rest of the Husky family will sadly say goodbye to Abbes, but welcome in freshman Vanessa Wong in the fall, who owns a career-high ITF Juniors ranking of 90th.
Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the latest news and content on the Dawgs, and check out our website at GoHuskies.com.
Players Mentioned
