Starting the spring season 0-2 and bouncing back to .500, Texas A&M women’s tennis looks to gain a winning record on ITA Kickoff Weekend at home from Jan. 27-28.
Northwestern, TCU and Rice will rally at Mitchell with regional host A&M for a chance to play at National Team Indoors. The indoor competition will be held at the University of Washington’s campus from Feb. 9-12. The winner of the regional championship matches will travel to Seattle.
The Aggies are set to start their regional against the Wildcats on Saturday, Jan. 27, with first serve at 12 p.m. Holding a 2-1 record and a two-match winning streak over their opponent, the Maroon and White have not lost to the purple Cats since their first meeting in 2014 when head coach Mark Weaver was only an associate coach.
Northwestern has yet to be defeated in 2024 with back-to-back 7-0 sweeps of Butler and Eastern Michigan. On the other hand, A&M came back from two defeats in California to beat Harvard 6-1 and sweep Abilene Christian.
As the Aggies and the Wildcats rally on one side of Mitchell, the Owls and the Horned Frogs will battle it out on the other side. The winners of each match will play each other on Sunday, Jan. 28, at 12 p.m. for the championship of the regional while the losers will play the consolation match at the same time.
Junior Mary Stoiana and sophomore Mia Kupres are No. 3 nationally in doubles while Stoiana sits at No. 1 in singles play. Northwestern’s junior Justine Leong and graduate Christina Hand sit at No. 39 in doubles.
Stoiana and her former doubles partner, Carson Branstine, played Leong and Hand in the two schools’ last go-around in February of 2023. The match was called off as the doubles point was secured for the Aggies, but Stoiana and her partner were in the lead.
Neither Rice nor TCU holds spots in the singles, doubles or team ITA rankings. TCU is 1-0 on the season as it swept Northwestern State. Falling to an 0-1 record to Harvard, Rice was downed by the Crimson, 4-2.
