Jan. 4, 2012
SEATTLE - The start of the women's tennis season is less than two weeks away, and the Huskies will begin their 2012 campaign ranked 27th nationally, as the Intercollegiate Tennis Association unveiled its first team rankings for the year. Also released was the newest set of individual rankings, with senior All-American Denise Dy coming in at No. 10 nationally in the singles poll. UW finished the 2011 season ranked 26th nationally after advancing to the second round of the NCAA tournament. That marked the fourth consecutive NCAA appearance under Head Coach Jill Hultquist. Washington will begin the season at the Michigan Invitational on January 14-16, before playing its first dual match at home on Jan. 20 against Sacramento State at the Nordstrom Tennis Center. Dy slipped a few spots from the fall rankings despite another impressive fall season that saw her advance to the ITA National Indoor Championship semifinals for the second time in her career. Two of her losses in the fall came against Stanford's Mallory Burdette, who is now ranked No. 1 in the country. Nine more wins in the fall pushed her career singles wins total to 89, which is fifth all-time and 22 away from the school record. The Huskies will face another top notch slate of opponents this year, with fourteen of their nineteen regular season opponents appearing in the initial set of rankings. The Pac-12 adds Colorado and Utah to the mix this year, and boasts a number of the nation's top-ranked teams including No. 2 Stanford, No. 5 UCLA, No. 8 California, No. 16 USC, and No. 19 Arizona State. Washington will have ranked non-conference matches at home against 29th-ranked Texas A&M (Feb. 19), No. 52 San Diego State (Feb. 24), and No. 41 St. Mary's (Feb. 26) in addition to the opener against 48th-ranked Sacramento State. |
