SAN ANTONIO – No. 16 Trinity University Women's Tennis will return to the Richardson, Texas NCAA III Regional of the 2023 National Championship tournament this upcoming weekend at the University of Texas-Dallas.
The Tigers (16-4) claimed the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship title last weekend with a shutout victory over University of St. Thomas in the semifinals and a 5-2 defeat of the tournament's host, No. 20 Southwestern University. This year's conference championship victory marks the women's second in a row and 25th overall for the program – second only to their counterparts in Trinity's men's tennis program.
While the championship match was a battle of two Top 20 teams, Trinity was too much to overcome for Southwestern, even with their home court advantage. The Tigers jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in doubles play with a pair of identical 8-4 victories by first-year
Trinity Levy (Camarillo, Calif. / Weil Tennis Academy) and junior
Cate Cushing (Colleyville, Texas / Colleyville) from line two and the sophomore duo of
Ruth Hill (Abilene, Texas / Abilene) and
Olivia Kim (Phoenix, Ariz. / Desert Mountain) in line one. The Pirates managed to avoid the doubles sweep with an 8-6 win from line three.
Southwestern carried their momentum into singles play, scoring a straight set win in line six and evening the match at 2-2, but Trinity remained unfazed by the initial singles result. Kim and Hill both notched on two more points with their wins over regionally-ranked opponents, taking the advantage up 4-2. As two of the three remaining Tigers battled out third sets, Cushing was able to clinch the Trinity victory with her 7-6, 7-5 win from line four.
Levy has won five straight singles matches while her doubles partner Cushing has won six straight, rounding both of them out to twelve singles wins apiece on the season – the highest number on the team. Hill and junior
Ellie Hughes (Austin, Texas / Vandergrift) both have 10 singles wins, while junior
Ella Cummings (Albuquerque, N.M. / Sandia) and Kim are just behind them with nine each.
The regular line one and two duos of Cushing/Levy and Hill/Kim hold identical 15-4 records to lead the team so far this season, with the former pairing having won seven straight. Sophomore
Brooke Belitz (Scottsdale, Ariz. / Notre Dame Prep) and Hughes who typically fill the third-line spot aren't far behind with 10 wins.
ITA Latest Poll: Only New Regional Team Rankings (April 28)
The latest update from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association released new regional rankings where the Tigers maintain their position at No. 3 in the West, just behind their Saturday opponent, No. 3 (nationally) Pomona-Pitzer Colleges. The next ITA Poll is expected to be released on May 12 to include new team and regional player rankings.
Trinity Women's Tennis: Returning to Familiar Territory
The No. 16 Tigers will be making their 25th appearance in the NCAA III Championship Tournament this year – their 10
th over the last 11 seasons. The women narrowly missed the margin in 2021 when they were edged out 5-4 by Southwestern in the SCAC Championship tournament.
Trinity has won the National Title one time, alongside their men's team, in 2000 under head coach
Butch Newman. The women's team has made multiple other strong playoff runs in the past – they were named the runner up twice (1997, 2001), along with seven trips to the semifinals and four to the quarterfinals.
NCAA III Tournament: Regional Matchup Repeat
While the two teams have not met yet this season, Trinity will be facing a familiar squad on Saturday in No. 3 Pomona-Pitzer. The Sagehens have been the Tigers' first matchup of the NCAA III national bracket three of their last four tournament appearances, all of which were played in Claremont, California. Should they advance to the next round of play, No. 16 Trinity could play one of three teams – the host, University of Texas-Dallas, No. 29 Whitman College, or No. 2 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges.
On the Sagehens: Pomona-Pitzer currently holds a 13-8 record on the season, though they fell in their last contest to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship match, 5-3. The Sagehens only have four NCAA III losess – two of which came from fellow SCIAC member, CMS, while the other two came at the ITA Indoor Nationals to University of Chicago and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The Tigers have only won a single match against the Sagehens in their last 10 contests – a 7-2 victory in the 2012 regular season. The two teams have met four times in the playoffs, each resulting in a Pomona-Pitzer win at the Claremont Regional in California, and the most recent being in 2019.
The Sagehens are ranked No. 3 nationally and sit just ahead of the Tigers at No. 2 in the West. While they have one nationally ranked player in Angie Zhou (6th), they currently have two singles players and two doubles teams that are ranked in the region. Zhou takes the 1st place spot in the West, while teammate Nina Ye holds the 18th place for singles. Ye is paired with teammate Lauren Rha as the 2nd place doubles team in the region, while Zhou is just a few spots behind with her duo partner of Marissa Markey at 6th.
On the Athenas: CMS has been dominating this season, producing a record of 22-1 overall with half of their wins being shutouts. Their only loss came at the hand of No. 1 UChicago (19-0) at the ITA Indoor Championships in early March. Since then, the Athenas have won 18 in a row with their latest victory coming over Pomona-Pitzer in the SCIAC Championship tournament.
Trinity has fallen to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in each of their matchups since 2011, their closest margin being a 6-3 loss during the 2017 regular season. The two teams' only matchups in the post-season came in back-to-back years (2015, 2016) in the second round, with both matches ending in 5-0 shutouts.
As the No. 2 team in the nation, the Athenas have a plethora of nationally ranked individuals on their squad, even more than No. 1 UChicago. Their five ranked singles players include Katherine Wurster (5th), Sena Selby (20th), Lindsay Eisenman (24th), Alisha Chulani (37th), and Ella Brissett (41st). They also have three ranked doubles teams – Gabby Lee is paired with Eisenman (5th), Devon Wolfe is a duo with Chulani (13th), and finally the combo of Audrey Yoon and Brissett (21st).
On the Comets: Since their visit to the Alamo City on April 2, UT-Dallas has added four more victories to their win column for an overall record of 12-6. The first three wins ended in shutouts over their opponents, while the last awarded them the American Southwest Conference Championship title in a 5-1 victory over Hardin-Simmons University.
Since 2011, the Tigers have won all but one of their matches against the Comets. Their latest victory came earlier this season when they took down the then-No. 37 team with a score of 8-1.
On the Blues: Whitman has accumulated a 13-5 record this season, winning their last seven matches and being crowned the champions of the Northwest Conference after their 5-1 defeat of Linfield University.
Trinity has faced the Blues seven times since 2012, winning all but two of their competitions. Their latest meeting was in 2022 where the Tigers posted a 7-2 win. The two teams have not yet met in the NCAA III playoffs.
Looking Ahead: NCAA III Championships
The winner of this weekend's tournament will advance to the NCAA III National Championship which will be played May 14-17 at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida.
