Deacs Announce 2016-17 Schedule
8/30/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
2016-17 Schedule | Printable Schedule
By Wake Forest Athletic Communications (@WakeWTennis)
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – With the start of the 2016-17 Wake Forest women's tennis season just around the corner, head coach Jeff Wyshner announced his team's 2016-17 slate Tuesday afternoon. Highlighting the release is the Deacs' annual home tournament, the Wake Forest Invitational from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2, a trip to the ITA Kickoff Weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, and 13 home matches throughout the spring season.
"This schedule is undoubtedly the toughest we have faced in my seven years at Wake Forest," Wyshner said. "We face 17 teams that were ranked at the end of last year and 15 NCAA Tournament teams. The ACC presents possibly the hardest conference schedule in the country, and then to add in nonconference tests like LSU, Mississippi, Yale, Princeton, William & Mary and Tennessee is really exciting but also incredibly challenging. We are excited to get to work this week to keep getting better so we can reach the goals that we have for ourselves while facing a challenging schedule."
After the calendar rolls over to 2017, Wake Forest's spring season will open on Jan. 16 with a home doubleheader against College of Charleston and Winthrop. Following six matches away from Winston-Salem against Tennessee, Middle Tennessee State, LSU, Virginia or Mississippi, Yale and Princeton, Wake Forest returns home for back-to-back double headers against William & Mary and Liberty on Feb. 11 and ACC play kicks off on Feb. 18 when Clemson comes to the Wake Forest Tennis Complex, followed by Appalachian State later in the day.
Following a weekend in Florida against Florida State on March 3 and Miami on March 5, the Deacs will play four of their next six at home starting March 17 against Notre Dame. The home stretch will also feature matchups against NC State, East Carolina and Georgia Tech.
With three matches on the road from April 7 to April 13, the Deacs will come home for their final three matches of the regular season with North Carolina on April 15, Syracuse on April 21 and Boston College on April 23. The ACC Championships are slated for April 26-30 in Cary, North Carolina.
Prior to the spring season kicking off, the Demon Deacons will tune up for the year with six fall tournaments. Wake Forest's fall slate is set to start on Sept. 9 at the Elon Invitational and will continue on Sept. 23 with the Furman Invitational. The home Wake Forest Invitational from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2 will close the first month of the campaign and it coincides with the start of the Riviera/ITA All-American Championships in Pacific Palisades, California, which runs Oct. 1-9.
Following the home tournament, the Deacs will have an extended break before competing in the ITA Carolina Regionals from Oct. 20 to 24. Wake Forest's fall season will close out with the Tennessee Invitational on from Oct. 28-30.
Last season at the ITA Carolina Regionals, then-freshman Anna Ulyashchenko made a run to the semifinals of the tournament before falling to North Carolina's Hayley Carter. The run was the deepest by a Deac since Sasha Kulikova reached the semifinals in 2007. In the doubles bracket, Luisa Fernandez and Andrea Retolaza Andrade reached the quarterfinals but fell to UNC's Jessie Aney and Kate Vialle.
A season ago, Wake Forest reached its first NCAA Tournament under Jeff Wyshner. The Deacs put up a hard fight in Athens, Georgia, against Baylor, but the Bears ultimately came away with a tight 4-2 victory to advance to the second round. Overall in 2016, the Deacs went 19-10 to finish with its best record since 2002. It marked the seventh time in program history the Deacs won 19 matches in a season. Each of the six singles players that competed in the NCAA Tournament posted at least 21 wins on the season as Joanna Zalewski led the way with 30 singles victories.
Players Mentioned
