Deacs Women’s Tennis Program Continues to Rise

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- The Wake Forest women's tennis team was set for a trip to Boston College on Friday, March 13, just as the sports world was seemingly coming to a screeching halt.

"Our program was a hot topic of conversation among the leaders of the university, not just the athletic department," coach Jeff Wyshner said. "We were the first student trip scheduled from the middle of that week on. We were at the tennis center at 8 a.m. Thursday (March 12) getting bags packed in order to fly out of Charlotte to play Boston College on Friday."

It was not long after Wake Forest rebooked the women's tennis team flights for Friday that the ACC & NCAA suspended and subsequently cancelled all competition and events for the remainder of the academic year.

"They made the right call," Wyshner said. "If they had just suspended for a couple weeks, it would have made it harder for some of our student-athletes to have gotten home. By the following week, the number of flights leaving the country was drastically reduced."

The Deacs rose to No. 12 in the national ranking after defeating No. 5 Princeton 4-1 on Feb. 22 in the Blue Gray Classic in Montgomery, Alabama. Wake grabbed three wins that weekend, earning that tournament's championship.

"That was our first top-five win as a program in about 20 years," Wyshner said. "It was a real accomplishment for us. From there we went into ACC play, and had a very tough schedule to start, facing three top-10 teams in the first two weekends. It was an exciting time."

His program is also thriving in the classroom, as it was announced that the squad achieved a perfect 1,000 score in the NCAA APR metric.

"It's several years in a row where we've had a perfect APR," Wyshner said. "I wish I could take more credit, but it's really a testament to (Senior Associate A.D. for Student-Athlete Services & Assistant to the Dean of the College) Jane Caldwell and our student-athletes. One of the things I've found as a coach is that when we're on the road I have to take time to tell them to stop studying and go to bed. A lot of credit to our young women for what they've done academically. All three of our seniors graduated in eight semesters, which is incredible."

Meanwhile, returning next season for the Demon Deacons are the top-four singles competitors, leading to a ton of optimism for Wyshner.

"Fortunately for us, the top part of our team is coming back," he said. "We return our top four players. We've lost three great seniors who had phenomenal careers, who really saw us through where we battled just to make the NCAA Tournament to where we were this year. But our positioning next year is even better.

"We will only have one senior, so during the next couple years we should continue to take steps forward."

Continuing to lead the charge at No. 1 singles will be Carolyn Campana, who transferred in for her sophomore season.

"She must have missed All-American by a couple-hundreths of a point," Wyshner said. "She was 19th in the country in the last public ranking, and needed to finish in the top-20."

Also returning is senior Eliza Omirou; juniors Peyton Pesavento, Saby Nihalani, Anna Brylin; and sophomores Anna Campana and Maddie Lynch.

On top of that, the Deacs are adding a top-15 ranked recruiting class consisting of Brooke Killingsworth, Casie Wooten and Maryam Ahmad.

"We have three freshmen coming in who we expect will make an impact right away," Wyshner said. "They're very talented. With the success we've had in recent years, we're able to recruit better and better. I'm excited not just about their talent level, but the work ethic this team will naturally have."

Wyshner and his team are excited to get back to campus and gear up for what should be a competitive 2020-21 season.

Wake Forest Athletics

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Anna Brylin

Anna Campana

Carolyn Campana

Maddie Lynch

Saby Nihalani

Eliza Omirou

Peyton Pesavento

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