News release from Texas A&M Athletics:
BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION – The No. 2 Texas A&M women’s tennis team hosts USF at the Mitchell Tennis Center Friday at 1 p.m. for the annual ITA Kickoff Weekend. TCU and Denver also make the trip to Aggieland to take part in the tournament.
The Maroon & White opened the season versus Prairie View A&M, sweeping the Panthers (7-0) to claim their 56th-straight win at home.
Texas A&M is led by the reigning ITA National Player of the Year and No. 4 ranked singles player in the country, Mary Stoiana, who is 8-2 on the season with a team-high seven ranked wins. Other notable starters for the Aggies include No. 15 Nicole Khirin, who secured All-American status for the first time in her career after reaching the NCAA Individual Championship quarterfinals this Fall and No. 102 Daria Smetannikov, who leads the team in singles victories with 17.
Rounding out the lineup for the Maroon & White are 2024 doubles All-American Mia Kupres, 2024 SEC Freshman of the Year and ITA Texas Region Rookie of the Year Lucciana Perez and Jeanette Mireles, who was named to the 2024 SEC and NCAA All-Tournament teams in singles and doubles, respectively.
This weekend marks the first dual action of the season for USF and TCU. Denver (0-1) opened the season with a 5-2 loss at Colorado.
Two other ranked players will be featured in singles action at the tournament, including No. 93 Andrea Beltran of Denver and No. 100 Tomi Main of TCU. In doubles action, Denver and TCU each have two ranked duos. Denver boasts Beltran and Marley Lamber at No. 47 and Claudia Martinez de Velasco at No. 110. TCU is headlined by Jade Otway and Isabel Pascual at No. 12 and Main and Yu-Chin Tsai at No. 69.
Matches begin Friday at 1 p.m. with Texas A&M taking on USF and TCU facing Denver. The consolation and championship matches will be played simultaneously at 1 p.m. Saturday.