ABILENE – Abilene Christian opens the Western Athletic Conference Women's Tennis Tournament on Thursday against Grand Canyon at 9 a.m. at the Arlington Tennis Center.
Â
ACU enters the tournament as the No. 5 seed and Grand Canyon is seeded fourth. The Lopes won the regular-season matchup in Abilene, 6-1. The Cats are 11-12 overall and 5-4 in the conference.
Â
The Wildcats enter the tournament without the services of
Maryjoe Crisologo who is medically unavailable. ACU will play with two doubles teams and five singles entrants.
Â
In the previous meeting,
Eva Arranz scored a singles victory at line six and teamed up with
Andrea Guerrero for a doubles win.
Â
Arranz and
Maria Cascos were both 8-1 in WAC singles matches this season and led the team with 13 overall wins apiece.
Andrea Guerrero is 7-2 against the league and
Olivia Sears have five WAC wins.
Â
Cascos and Crisologo had a 7-1 mark against the WAC in doubles.
Â
GCU enters the tournament at 12-9 on the season and 6-3 against the league. Natasha Puehse went 9-0 against the WAC at No. 1 singles and Madeline Lamoreaux was unbeaten in the league at No. 5 singles.
Â
ACU would play top-seeded Texas-Arlington or Sam Houston in a second-round matchup at 9 a.m. on Friday if the Cats advance in the single-elimination format.
Â
Other first-round matches have second-seeded Tarleton playing Seattle and No. 3 Texas-Rio Grande Valley on Thursday.
Â
The finals are set for 9 a.m. on Saturday.
Â
Â
2023 WAC Women's Tennis Tournament
Arlington Tennis Center, Arlington, Texas
Â
Thursday, April 27– Women's First Round
No. 4 Grand Canyon vs. No. 5 Abilene Christian – 9 a.m.Â
No. 1 UT Arlington vs No. 8 Sam Houston – noon
No. 3 UTRGV vs. No. 6 NM State – noon
No. 2 Tarleton vs No. 7 Seattle U – 9 a.m
Â
Friday, April 28– Women's Semifinals
Match 1 Winner vs. Match 2 Winner – 9 a.m.
Match 3 Winner vs. Match 4 Winner – 9 a.m.
Â
Saturday, April 29– Women's Championship
Match 5 Winner vs. Match 6 Winner – 9 a.m.
Â