Women's Tennis Releases 2012-13 Schedule
7/12/2012 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
July 12, 2012
2012-13 Schedule | Printable Schedule (PDF) 
| Downloadable Schedule
By Alex Botoman, Wake Forest Media Relations (@SIDeacons)
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Wake Forest head women's tennis coach Jeff Wyshner today announced the Demon Deacons' 2012-13 schedule, which includes 12 home matches, 11 contests against teams that finished last season ranked in the top 50 in the nation, and three home tournaments, including the prestigious USTA/ITA Carolina Regional which will be played on Wake Forest's courts for the first time since 2009.
Wake Forest will open dual match play on January 26 with a rare home/away doubleheader, as the Deacons will host Richmond in the morning before traveling to Elon in the afternoon. The Deacs will play eight consecutive home matches from Feb. 9 through March 3, highlighted by contests against North Carolina, NC State, Long Beach State and VCU, which all finished last season in the ITA national rankings.
The Demon Deacons will take a cross-country spring break trip, first heading south to Florida to take on USF before jetting to California for a match against San Diego. Wake Forest will then play all of its road ACC matches in one month-long stretch, traveling to Duke, Florida State, Miami, Virginia and Virginia Tech, before returning home to close out the regular season against Boston College, Maryland, Georgia Tech and Clemson.
"Our dual match schedule will present a daunting challenge," said Wyshner. "The ACC matches alone always give us one of the toughest schedules in the country, and 80 to 90 percent of our non-conference schedule will be against teams that will probably end up top 50 in the country next year. Those tough matches in January, February and early March are the only way to prepare ourselves for the ACC gauntlet, and I am really looking forward to facing the ACC with a deeper roster this coming year."
Before heading into dual match play in late January, the Demon Deacons will compete in five fall tournaments. Wake Forest will open the season at the Virginia Invitational on Sept. 14 before hosting the Wake Forest Invitational on Oct. 5.
The Deacs will host the ITA Carolina Regional, which serves as the collegiate championship for players from the states of North and South Carolina, from Oct. 18-22. Wake Forest will then wrap up fall competition at the Midwest Blast in Champaign, Ill. from Nov. 9-11.
"Our fall schedule will definitely present a great challenge to what is going to be a pretty young team," said Wyshner. "We are really looking forward to hosting the USTA/ITA Carolina Regional which is the region's most important annual tournament. It is a great way to showcase our incredible facilities and to offer our community the opportunity to see some of the best collegiate tennis in the country."
"We'll have another 16 teams here for our second annual Wake Forest Invitational which makes it one of the bigger collegiate events in the country, and we'll see top notch competition in tournaments at both Illinois and Virginia. It should provide us with excellent preparation heading into dual match play."
The 2013 ACC Championships will once again be held at Cary Tennis Park in Cary, N.C. from April 26-28. The final rounds of this year's NCAA team competition, as well as all rounds of the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships will be hosted by Illinois, starting on May 16.
The 2012-13 Demon Deacons will return five players from last year's squad, led by senior Kathryn Talbert. Three freshmen will join the team, including blue chip recruit Kasey Gardiner, who comes to Wake Forest from Novi, Mich.
Players Mentioned
