Cougars Head to 2024 Pac-12 Championship
THIS WEEK: Washington State Tennis (10-11, 1-9) heads to the 2024 Pac-12 Women's Tennis Championships this week and will face Washington in the first-round match, Wednesday, April 24, 3 p.m. at the Weil Tennis Academy in Ojai, Calif.
PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIPS: The 2024 Pac-12 Championships will take place April 24- 27 in Ojai, Calif. The women's field is led by No. 10 Bruins (17-4), which earned the No. 1 seed in the women's bracket after securing the outright league title last week, defeating crosstown rival No. 11 USC, 4-2, to finish the season 9-1 in conference play. No. 3 Stanford (19-2, 8-1) picked up a win in its season finale against No. 9 Cal (16-5, 8-2) to secure the second seed in Ojai. The Trojans and Golden Bears both finished 8-2 in league dual matches this season, but USC's 4-3 win over Cal on Sunday, March 31 earned the Trojans the head-to-head tiebreaker between the programs. Thus, USC and Cal earned the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds, respectively. The remaining seeds include Arizona State (5), Washington (6), Arizona (7), Utah (8), Colorado (9), Oregon (10) and Washington State (11). The first three rounds of the Tournament will be played at the Weil Tennis Academy, with the championship match played at Libbey Park. The Pac-12 Networks will televise the championship match.
FOLLOW LIVE: Fans wishing to follow the Cougars at the Pac-12 Championships can do so by clicking HERE for live stats..
SCOUTING WASHINGTON: The No. 26 Huskies enter Wednesday's match as the No. 6 seed with a 16-9 overall record. Washington currently has two players in the national singles rankings, led by No. 99 Alexia Jacobs and No. 105 Astrid Olsen. Olsen and Jacobs are ranked No. 48 in doubles. Washington leads the all-time series, 52-13. The last time these two teams met at the Pac-12 Championships, the Cougars came away with a 4-2 win over the 35th-ranked Huskies in 2022.
LAST TIME OUT: The Cougars dropped a 4-0 decision to No. 26 Washington in Pullman last Friday.
HOLLINGBERY RENOVATION: The Simmelink Tennis Courts at Hollingbery Fieldhouse underwent a renovation in December of 2023. A new playing surface was installed along with branded backdrops around the four courts.
ROSTER BREAKDOWN: For the 2023-24 season the Cougars will have one new player accompanying the seven returners. The roster consists of seniors Fifa Kumhom and Hania Abouelsaad, juniors Maxine Murphy and Elyse Tse, along with sophomores Eva Alvarez Sande, Yura Nakagawa and Tiffany Phout. Freshman Martina Markov joins the Cougar lineup this season.
COACH RAQUEL ATAWO: Raquel Atawo is in her third season as head coach of the Cougars after being named to the position July 2, 2021. Atawo arrived in Pullman having spent the 2021 season as the assistant coach at Auburn and prior to that, spent 15 years on the WTA Tour, where she reached a No. 10 world ranking in doubles.
FOLLOW THE COUGARS: Keep up with Washington State tennis by following @WSUCougarTennis on Twitter, @wsucougartennis on Instagram, and Washington State Cougar Tennis on Facebook.