SAN ANTONIO – No. 16 Trinity University Women's Tennis will host the fourth and fifth match of its current seven-match homestand this Saturday with its first two Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference matchups—Texas Lutheran University and University of St. Thomas.
The Tigers (3-2) enter the weekend undefeated against NCAA III opponents to start the 2023 campaign with a season-opening 8-1 output at Hardin-Simmons University (Jan. 27) to go with a shutout victory, 9-0, over Concordia University (TX) Sunday morning. First-year
Trinity Levy (Camarillo, Calif. / Weil Tennis Academy) added a point in Trinity's matchup with NCAA I University of the Incarnate Word through a line-three straight-sets victory.
With national rankings from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) on pause until mid-March, the Tigers will roll on ranked No. 16 in NCAA III through the preseason rankings released in mid-January, with two singles players and two doubles teams ranked nationally.
The reigning ITA Southwest Regional Championship duo of Levy and junior
Cate Cushing (Colleyville, Texas / Heritage) sit at No. 16 followed by sophomores
Ruth Hill (Abilene, Texas / Abilene) and
Olivia Kim (Phoenix, Ariz. / Desert Mountain) at No. 25. Levy and Hill also opened 2023 in the national singles rankings, No. 28 and No. 45, respectively.
No. 16 Trinity Women's Tennis will host NCAA II Dallas Baptist University (Feb. 24) and No. 2 University of Chicago (March 15) to conclude the current homestand before flying out to Virginia for matchups with No. 14 University of Mary Washington and No. 21 Washington & Lee University the following weekend.
Back By Popular Demand: SCAC Doubles Team of the Week
Kim and Hill remained on the conference's weekly honor roll Tuesday afternoon as the SCAC renewed its Doubles Team of the Week tag for Trinity's sophomore duo. In line one for both of Sunday's matchups, Kim and Hill put up an 8-2 victory against Concordia before fighting to an 8-4 defeat against Incarnate Word.
Preview: The SCAC Season Begins… Texas Lutheran and St. Thomas (Feb. 18)
Both the Bulldogs and Celts opened their SCAC campaigns on the wrong side of a shutout last weekend at No. 20 Southwestern University, and are both winless to open their respective 2023 seasons.
On the Bulldogs: Texas Lutheran has collected one point through four duals since opening the season January 27 at Our Lady of the Lake University. The second-line duo of Christa Bennett and Victoria Gonzalez made the tally in the Bulldogs' home-opener against East Texas Baptist University on Friday, 8-4.
The Tigers have allowed just two points to the Bulldogs since the start of the 2015 season—a span of six matches—including a shutout victory to open the 2015 SCAC Championship tournament.
On the Celts: St. Thomas has yet to play a home match through its first three to start the 2023 season and will visit San Antonio before its home-opener on March 4. The Celts fell at Concordia, 7-2, on February 4 then at University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, 6-3, on February 10 before Saturday's visit to Georgetown.
Four of St. Thomas's five points this season have come from the efforts of Anamaria Gonzalez. The senior has taken two different partners to 8-2 victories in line-one doubles and dropped just one set in singles between the Concordia and UMHB, both in the first line.
Saturday will be the first regular season meeting between the Celts and Tigers since the 2021 campaign, though the programs have met in each of the last two SCAC tournaments which both netted swift 5-0 victories for Trinity.
Looking Ahead: Some of NCAA III's Best on Tap
While No. 16 Trinity's home bout with No. 2 Chicago will close the current home stretch, the match opens a stretch of five straight contests with programs ranked nationally by the ITA in the preseason.
The Tigers will visit No. 14 Mary Washington and No. 21 Washington & Lee directly after the second-ranked Maroons, then host No. 25 Johns Hopkins University (March 23) and No. 22 Colby College (March 24).
