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University of California, Santa Barbara

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Jeff Liang

Gauchos Set to Face LSU and San Diego to Open 2025 Season

SAN DIEGO - The UC Santa Barbara Women's Tennis team will travel to the Skip and Cindy Hogan Tennis Center in San Diego this weekend to face LSU and the University of San Diego as they kick off the 2025 season.  
 
DETAILS 
Match 1 
Saturday, Jan. 18 | 2 p.m. 
UC Santa Barbara (0-0) vs. LSU (0-0) 
Skip and Cindy Hogan Tennis Center | San Diego 
 
Match 2 
Saturday, Jan. 19 | 12 p.m. 
UC Santa Barbara (0-0) vs. San Diego (0-0) 
Skip and Cindy Hogan Tennis Center | San Diego 
 
HISTORY  
Saturday's matchup will be the first meeting of the women's tennis teams for the Gauchos and Tigers. Last season, LSU held a 16-11 record appearing in the quarterfinal round of the SEC Championship. The Tigers earned a 4-3 victory over Baylor in the first round of the NCAA Tournament before falling to Stanford in the second round. 
 
Sunday sees a battle with Toreros who hold a 3-3 all-time record with the Gauchos. The Blue and Gold will look to find their first win over the Toreros in three years as the last two meetings saw the Gauchos drop 6-1 on both occasions. The Gauchos will have their work cut out for them as San Diego is coming off a WCC Championship finals appearance and an NCAA Tournament first round win over Grand Canyon last year. 
 
FALL RECAP 
The Gauchos opened the fall tournament season at the Battle in the Bay where Amelia Honer and Ali Benedetto had a strong start in both doubles and singles. Honer took four straight wins, all in straight sets, to come away with the singles consolation championship title. 
 
The fall season continued at the ITA All-American Championships where Amelia Honer and Marie Weissheim brought home the doubles consolation championship title but still remained in search of their NCAA qualifying spot. 
 
At the Women of Troy Invite, Benedetto and Weissheim made a doubles championship appearance following wins over BYU and Wisconsin. The same weekend, Gauchos found success in Long Beach at the Beach Fall Tennis Tournament. Raphaelle Leroux, in her first tournament for Santa Barbara, won five straight matches to appear in the championship final. The freshman won in straight sets in her first two matches as a Gaucho. Lily Pradkin and Emma Tutoveanu won their first collegiate matches in singles as well. Tyra Richardson kicked off her senior season with three wins on the weekend, all in straight sets.  
 
At the ITA Southwest Regional Championship in San Diego, Honer won in straight sets for six consecutive singles matches to reach the championship where she defeated the 8th ranked player nationally and clinched her spot at Waco.  
 
At the Dennis Rizza Classic, five Gauchos went 2-0 on the weekend in singles. During Friday's singles matches, Marie Weissheim, Raphaelle Leroux and Tyra Richardson each took straight set victories over their opponents from LMU. Leroux and Weissheim took the first Gauchos doubles victory. Pacot and Leroux also took their first win as a pair over Saint Mary's.  
 
At the ITA West Sectional Championships, the last opportunity for the top three doubles to clinch a NCAA Championship spot, Honer and Weissheim took two straight set wins to reach the semifinals. Despite the loss in the semifinal round, they found success in the 3rd place match with a 15-13 win in the tiebreak to qualify as a doubles pair for the NCAA Championships.  
 
ABOUT THE GAUCHOS 
Overall Record: 0-0 
Big West: 0-0 
Home: 0-0 
Away: 0-0 
Neutral: 0-0 
Against Ranked Opponents: 0-0 
ITA Ranking: N/A 
Streak: N/A 
 
ABOUT THE TIGERS 
Overall Record: 0-0 
Big West: 0-0 
Home: 0-0 
Away: 0-0 
Neutral: 0-0 
Against Ranked Opponents: 0-0 
ITA Ranking: N/A 
Streak: N/A 
 
ABOUT THE TOREROS 
Overall Record: 0-0 
Big West: 0-0 
Home: 0-0 
Away: 0-0 
Neutral: 0-0 
Against Ranked Opponents: 0-0 
ITA Ranking: N/A 
Streak: N/A 
 
UP NEXT 
Following the weekend in San Diego, the Gauchos will travel to Ann Arbor, Michigan for the ITA Kickoff Weekend as they face No. 21 Vanderbilt and Michigan or Yale. The Friday matchup with Vanderbilt begins at 11 a.m. PT with the Saturday matchup opponent and time to be determined.  
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