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.
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.
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.
In the previous meeting,
Eva Arranz scored a singles victory at line six and teamed up with
Andrea Guerrero for a doubles win.
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.
Cascos and Crisologo had a 7-1 mark against the WAC in doubles.
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.
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.
Other first-round matches have second-seeded Tarleton playing Seattle and No. 3 Texas-Rio Grande Valley on Thursday.
The finals are set for 9 a.m. on Saturday.
2023 WAC Women's Tennis Tournament
Arlington Tennis Center, Arlington, Texas
Thursday, April 27– Women's First Round
No. 4 Grand Canyon vs. No. 5 Abilene Christian – 9 a.m.
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
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.
Saturday, April 29– Women's Championship
Match 5 Winner vs. Match 6 Winner – 9 a.m.
