SAN ANTONIO – Trinity University Women's Tennis will host Concordia University (TX) and NCAA I University of the Incarnate Word Sunday—9:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. respectively—for the second and third of its current seven-match homestand.
The Tigers (2-1) posted their first shutout in their home-opener against NAIA Our Lady of the Lake on Friday as the match was played to clinch, 5-0, collected by sophomore
Olivia Kim (Phoenix, Ariz. / Desert Mountain) from the second line. Trinity also opened its NCAA III schedule in the win column on January 27 with an 8-1 output at Hardin-Simmons University.
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 junior
Cate Cushing (Colleyville, Texas / Heritage) and first-year
Trinity Levy (Camarillo, Calif. / Weil Tennis Academy) sit at No. 16 followed by Kim and sophomore partner
Ruth Hill (Abilene, Texas / Abilene) 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 roll into Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference matches the following weekend with matchups against Texas Lutheran University and University of St. Thomas on February 18.
SCAC Players of the Week: Sophomores Claim First Weeklies of 2023
Hill and Kim have teamed up for a pair of line-one victories so far this season with an 8-4 mark against Hardin-Simmons and an 8-5 mark Friday against the Saints, leading to the duo's second career SCAC Doubles Team of the Week award.
Preview: Sunday Double-Dip, Concordia (9:30 a.m.) and UIW (1:00 p.m.)
On the Tornados: Concordia opened 2023 with a 7-2 victory over St. Thomas on Saturday, and will host its first American Southwest Conference match Friday—Howard Payne University—before making the trip to San Antonio for Sunday morning's matchup.
Sunday will be the first meeting between the two programs for a dual match. In last fall's ITA Southwest Regional Championships, Trinity collected three resounding victories over Concordia:
- Cushing defeated Trinity Klamecki, 6-0, 6-3, in the first round of singles. Klamecki played in line four for the season-opener against the Celts.
- Kim defeated Kaitlin Stevens, 6-0, 6-0, in the second round, Concordia's sixth-line representative last week.
- Kim and Hill took out Kayla Pena and Natalia Goodman in the second doubles round, 8-0. While the Pena/Goodman pairing did not occur against St. Thomas, the two Tornados were the respective first and fifth lines in the singles lineup.
On the Cardinals: UIW found the win column Saturday, 4-3, in its home-opener against Texas State University—a rebound from season-opening road losses at Southern Methodist University, 4-0, and at Texas Tech University, 0-7. The Cardinals will host Prairie View A&M University for a doubleheader Friday before their hike to the
Butch Newman Tennis Center Sunday afternoon.
While the last seven matchups have all went in favor of UIW since the 2010 campaign, Trinity has posted at least two points in each of the last five matchups, twice falling by a slim 4-3 margin. Trinity last hosted the Cardinals in 2013.
Looking Ahead: First SCAC Matches, NCAA III Gauntlet Looms
No. 16 Trinity Women's Tennis will host Texas Lutheran and St. Thomas February 18 for the first two of five SCAC matches on the 2023 schedule.
The Tigers will face straight programs ranked nationally in NCAA III by the ITA in the preseason from March 15-24, including an east-coast getaway for No. 14 University of Mary Washington and No. 21 Washington & Lee University. Reigning NCAA III Championship runner-up No. 2 University of Chicago opens the gauntlet in San Antonio on March 15.
