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University of California, Santa Barbara

Ali Benedetto
Jeff Liang

Gauchos Set to Face Ranked Opponents at ITA Kick-Off Weekend

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - The UC Santa Barbara Women's Tennis team will travel to Michigan for the ITA Kick-Off Weekend as they face No. 21 Vanderbilt on Saturday and No. 8 Michigan or Yale on Sunday. Two matches are guaranteed for each team as the team that earns two wins receives an invite to the ITA National Team Indoor Championship.  
 
DETAILS  
Match 3  
Saturday, Jan. 25 | 11 a.m. PT 
UC Santa Barbara (0-2) vs. No. 21 Vanderbilt (1-0)  
Varsity Tennis Center | Ann Arbor, Michigan 
  
Match 4  
Sunday, Jan. 26 | 7 a.m. or 11 a.m. PT 
Loser of Michigan/Yale vs. loser of UC Santa Barbara/Vanderbilt, 7 a.m. 
Winner of Michigan/Yale vs. winner of UC Santa Barbara/Vanderbilt, 11 a.m. 
Varsity Tennis Center | Ann Arbor, Michigan 
 
LAST TIME OUT 
The Gauchos fell short on their opening weekend in San Diego, suffering a 6-1 defeat to LSU and a 5-2 loss to San Diego. Amelia Honer got two singles wins across the weekend, both in the third set, and Freshman Emma Tutoveanu earned her first spring season win on Sunday over San Diego.  
 
HISTORY   
Saturday's matchup will be the first meeting of the women's tennis teams for the Gauchos and Commodores. Vanderbilt is starting the season 1-0 with a 5-2 victory over SMU last weekend. Along with the 21st team ranking, they have the No. 11 doubles pairing with Celia-Belle Mohr/Sophia Webster and two singles rankings with No. 26 Bridget Stammel and No. 78 Valeria Ray. The Commodores are coming off a run to the NCAA Super Regional last year after defeating No. 12 Ohio State in the Regionals.  
  
Sunday sees a battle with either No. 8 Michigan or Yale with the winners and losers from Saturday facing each other. This weekend will be the first matches of the season for the tournament host and No. 1 seed, Michigan. The Gauchos hold a 2-0 all-time record over the Wolverines. Michigan boasts numerous ranked players in the ITA rankings with three singles players in the top 50 and three doubles pairings in the top 100. Last year, the Wolverines went 29-4 and undefeated in conference with a NCAA Super Regional victory before falling in the Team Championship Quarterfinals to No. 6 Pepperdine.  
 
A matchup with Yale would be the first meeting for the Gauchos and Bulldogs. Yale is 1-0 coming off a 7-0 sweep of Quinnipiac in their first matchup of the season last weekend. They have two ITA rankings with No. 99 Shyla Aggarwal in singles and No. 117 Erin Ha/Shyla Aggarwal in doubles. Last year, the Bulldogs held a 16-8 overall record and were 4-3 in conference play. 
  
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  
Roster | Schedule  
Overall Record: 0-2 
Big West: 0-0  
Home: 0-0  
Away: 0-1  
Neutral: 0-1  
Against Ranked Opponents: 0-0  
ITA Ranking: N/A  
Streak: L2 
  
ABOUT THE COMMODORES 
Overall Record: 1-0  
Big West: 0-0  
Home: 1-0  
Away: 0-0  
Neutral: 0-0  
Against Ranked Opponents: 0-0  
ITA Ranking: 21st 
Streak: W1 
  
ABOUT THE WOLVERINES 
Roster | Schedule  
Overall Record: 0-0  
Big West: 0-0  
Home: 0-0  
Away: 0-0  
Neutral: 0-0  
Against Ranked Opponents: 0-0  
ITA Ranking: 8th 
Streak: N/A  
 
ABOUT THE BULLDOGS 
Overall Record: 1-0  
Big West: 0-0  
Home: 1-0  
Away: 0-0  
Neutral: 0-0  
Against Ranked Opponents: 0-0  
ITA Ranking: N/A  
Streak: W1 
  
UP NEXT  
The Gauchos will host their first home match of the season against TCU on Feb. 9 at 10:30 a.m. at the Arnhold Tennis Center. Live streaming of the matches will be made available here.  
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