NC State women’s tennis will begin its spring season and return to action when it faces UCLA and Kentucky or Northwestern in the ITA Kick Off Weekend in Lexington, Kentucky, this weekend.
The event will be the Pack’s first since November, when it squared off against UNLV in the Rebel Invite and sent three of its four singles entrants to the finals.
The Wolfpack had a strong fall season and received votes in the first ITA Poll of 2018. NC State is coming off a highly successful 2017 spring season, finishing with a program-best No. 16 ranking in the ITA polls and advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, topping Oregon in the first round but ultimately falling to Georgia.
The team received major contributions from the duo of junior Claudia Wiltorkin and sophomore Anna Rogers in the fall. Competing as doubles, the pair advanced to the Round of 16 in the ITA National Fall Championships before narrowly falling to Ole Miss.
On the singles side, the Wolfpack will look for junior Amanda Rebol to continue her strong play. After earning 16 wins last year, she won the Gopher Invitational in the fall while also advancing to the finals of her singles flight at the Rebel Invite.
The lone senior on the squad, Taylor Stenta, picked up seven doubles wins in 2017 and, along with Rebol, advanced to the finals of her singles flight at the Rebel Invite.
In UCLA, the Pack will be matching up against the No. 17 team in the country. Last season, the Bruins finished 14-9 overall with a 7-3 conference mark. The team fell to Pepperdine in the second round of the NCAA tournament in 2017. The Bruins are off to a 1-0 start this season after defeating UC Santa Barbara on Jan. 19.
Kentucky is currently ranked No. 21 in the country and has already competed in the Miami Spring Invite back on Jan. 18.
Northwestern, along with the Wolfpack, is among the schools that received votes in the initial 2018 ITA poll.
The Wolfpack will begin its match against UCLA on Friday, Jan. 26 at 2 p.m. while Northwestern and Kentucky will square off against each other at 10 a.m. the same day. The second day of matches will take place Saturday, Jan. 27, with the Pack facing either Northwestern or Kentucky.
