The New Year is here and Eastern Washington women's tennis begins its spring dual schedule at home. Eastern will host Seattle University on Friday, Jan. 13 at the Jim Thorpe Fieldhouse, with matches starting at 4 p.m. Pacific Time. The match is free and open for the public to attend.

"It's exciting to get the season started this week with a home match, head coach Dustin Hinson said. "The ladies have been putting in the work at practice and I know they are ready to get our team matches gong. I saw a nice progression in our tournament play from this past fall and I'm looking for us to carry that momentum over to our dual matches. Seattle has a tough team and we expect nothing less than a battle on every court this Friday."

The 2022-23 season marks Hinson's 11^th at helm. Eastern played four tournaments in its fall schedule, including the EWU Hidden Duals, ITA Northwest Regional, Gonzaga Invitational and SDSU Fall Classic.

At the Northwest Regionals, Foshee and Mann would both win two matches in singles, with Nizetic winning one. Mann would partner with Anderson for a pair of double wins. Foshee and Nizetic would join up for a pair of wins in doubles as well.

The Eagles were picked to finish ninth in the Big Sky Preseason coaches' poll on Monday (Jan. 10), five points. Eastern finished the 2021-22 season with a 3-5 record in the Big Sky and 4-12 overall.

Returning for Eastern is Big Sky All-Conference second team selection Scout Mathews. Mathews posted a 6-6 record in singles and 5-3 in conference matches last season, playing primarily at the No. 2 spot. She was 6-6 in doubles matches.

Four additional Eagles return to Cheney from the '21-'22 team including Isabella Foshee, Renata Gabuzyan, Jennifer Kida and Kenzington Mann.

Last season, Foshee was 6-10 in singles, going 3-5 against Big Sky opponents, primarily in the No. 4 spot. She was 6-10 in doubles matches. Gabuzyan went 3-12 in singles, with a 3-5 record in the Big Sky, playing at No. 2, 3, 4, 5 positions. She went 4-10 in doubles. Kida was 3-9 in singles at the No. 1 spot, with a 2-6 mark in conference matches. Kida went 5-5 in doubles matches. Mann posted an 8-8 record in singles, playing the majority of matches in the No. 6 position. In doubles matches, Mann went 4-11.  

Joining the Easter this season is Grand Canyon transfer, Taylor Andersen, who is a native of Gig Harbor, Wash. During her freshman season at Grand Canyon (2020-21), Anderson was named to the First Team All-WAC for singles and doubles. She enters this season as a junior.

Hinson brought in two international standouts to the program in Leandra Nizetic and Sara Vasic. Nizetic is a native of Coesfield, Germany and Vasic hails from Belgrade, Serbia.

Up Next
Following the team's opening match, Eastern Washington will be off until Jan. 29 when they travel to Seattle to play Washington.