CHENEY, Wash. – The Eastern Washington University women's tennis team will open up the regular season with matches on Saturday (Jan. 20) at 1:00 p.m. against Pacific Lutheran and Sunday (Jan. 21) at 10:30 a.m. against Seattle.
"This is an exciting weekend for us. It will be a great opportunity to see how we compete as a team for the first time this season," said head coach Dustin Hinson. "We had some really nice individual performances in our fall season, but the team dual match season is a completely different type of competition. The energy is different – each player gets to feed off of their teammate competing next to them. Each player gets to feed off of momentum and the intangible things that often get overlooked in individual tournaments."
The Eagles finished their fall season in October and were recently ranked sixth in the Big Sky Conference Preseason Polls. Head coach Dustin Hinson is going into his fifth season at EWU and looks forward to returning six athletes from the 2017 regular season. The team looks forward to making a run for the Big Sky Championships for the first time since the 2015-16 season after finishing 5-15 in overall and 3-8 in conference last season.
Junior Valentina Sottile will be returning for the Eagles after leading the team last season with the highest winning percentage overall in singles and doubles as well as senior Janaya Smith who has been the Eagle's No. 1 singles and doubles player since she came to play for EWU. Marta Heinen, Jennifer Lewis, Rachel Swindell and Faye Worrall will also be returning from last season in addition to four newcomers.
"It's an exciting time for the new athletes who haven't had the chance to experience college team tennis," said Hinson. "Our training sessions have been really good these past couple of weeks and I have a team that likes to work hard, which is what you want to see as a coach. Now we get to go out and put that training into a real performance situation and see where we stack up."
Pacific Lutheran is also opening up their regular season this weekend against the Eagles after completing the 2017 season 2-15 overall and 1-11 in the Northwest Conference. The Lutes return five players from last season and bring on seven new athletes.
Seattle University also plays in two matches this weekend, playing South Dakota (Jan. 19) before taking on the Eagles on Sunday. Seattle finished the 2017 season with an overall record of 10-14 and a conference record of 0-5. The Redhawks are returning six athletes from last season with three new athletes.
"I'm a real believer in what we can accomplish as a team this season. This weekend will be the first test for us and I believe we are ready to show what we can do," said Hinson.
Following this weekend, Eastern will compete against Alabama on Feb. 10 and host their home-opener on Feb. 16 against Lewis and Clark State College. EWU will play in 21 matches this season leading up to the Big Sky Conference Championships at the end of April.
For more information on Eastern Washington's women's tennis team, follow @EWUAthletics on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
