Saturday, January 25
Raleigh, NC
2:00 PM
Rice University
at
#8 North Carolina State
Owls Head East for ITA Kickoff Weekend
1/24/2020 11:41:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Face No. 8 NC State in opener
In Brief: The Rice women's tennis team (1-0) will meet No. 8 North Carolina State in the opening round of the ITA Kickoff Weekend Raleigh Regional at 2 p.m. Saturday at the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center in Raleigh, North Carolina. The winner will face the winner of the Florida-Oklahoma match (11 a.m. Saturday) at noon on Sunday while the two losers will play a consolation match at 9 a.m. on Sunday.
Background: The Kickoff Weekend, which began in 2009, features 15 regional sites consisting of four teams competing this weekend for berths in the ITA National Indoor Championship from February 7-10. The University of Illinois will host the women's indoor championship and has automatically qualified for the field of 16. Regional hosts are determined using the final 2019 Oracle/ITA Collegiate Tennis Rankings. Each regional field was determined by a draft held last June where the participating teams selected their destinations.
The Field: Florida (0-0), NC State (6-0), Oklahoma (0-0), Rice (1-0)
Oracle/ITA National Top 25 (1/22/20): NC State (8), Florida (21)
Oracle/ITA Individual rankings (final fall results)
Doubles: 1. Alana Smith/Anna Rogers, NC State; 22. Jaeda Daniel/Adriana Reami, NC State; 37. Priya Niezgoda/Anastasia Smirnova, Rice
Singles: 18. Anna Rogers, NC State; 23. Adriana Reami, NC State; 31. Alana Smith, NC State; 37. McCartney Kessler, Florida; 86. Anastasia Smirnova, Rice; 87. Martina Cappuro, Oklahoma; 88. Layne Sleeth, Florida; 96. Victoria Emma, Florida.
Live scoring: KOWeekendStats (all matches)
Video: Saturday vs. NC State ; Sunday TBD
Notable:
Follow the Action:
For the most up-to-date information on Rice Tennis follow the Owls on Twitter @RiceTennis or Instagram @ricewtennis or like Rice Women's Tennis on Facebook.
Background: The Kickoff Weekend, which began in 2009, features 15 regional sites consisting of four teams competing this weekend for berths in the ITA National Indoor Championship from February 7-10. The University of Illinois will host the women's indoor championship and has automatically qualified for the field of 16. Regional hosts are determined using the final 2019 Oracle/ITA Collegiate Tennis Rankings. Each regional field was determined by a draft held last June where the participating teams selected their destinations.
The Field: Florida (0-0), NC State (6-0), Oklahoma (0-0), Rice (1-0)
Oracle/ITA National Top 25 (1/22/20): NC State (8), Florida (21)
Oracle/ITA Individual rankings (final fall results)
Doubles: 1. Alana Smith/Anna Rogers, NC State; 22. Jaeda Daniel/Adriana Reami, NC State; 37. Priya Niezgoda/Anastasia Smirnova, Rice
Singles: 18. Anna Rogers, NC State; 23. Adriana Reami, NC State; 31. Alana Smith, NC State; 37. McCartney Kessler, Florida; 86. Anastasia Smirnova, Rice; 87. Martina Cappuro, Oklahoma; 88. Layne Sleeth, Florida; 96. Victoria Emma, Florida.
Live scoring: KOWeekendStats (all matches)
Video: Saturday vs. NC State ; Sunday TBD
Notable:
- This is seventh time in the 12 years of the event that Rice has participated. The Owls are 4-8 in Kickoff Weekend matches, including a 2-4 record in openers. The Owls last win in their opening match was in 2014 when they defeated Florida State before falling to Texas in the second round.
- In their most recent appearance in 2018 at Pepperdine, the Owls fell to Oregon 4-2 in the opener before coming back to blank Maryland 4-0 in the consolation match.
- Senior Priya Niezgoda has a career 3-1 mark in doubles play during Kickoff Weekends while junior Anna Bowtell is 2-0 in doubles and Michaela Haet is 1-1. Bowtell is 1-0 in singles while Niezgoda are each 0-1.
- Rice is 2-1 vs. NC State, including a 1-0 mark on the road. The Owls won 8-1 on 2/12/84 at Raleigh and 5-4 at Jake Hess Tennis Stadium on 2/27/93 while the Wolfpack took the most recent meeting, 5-2 at Jake Hess on 2/16/07. Rice and Florida have not met in dual action while the Owls and Sooners have split six meetings.
- Six future Owls dual opponents are participating this weekend (Arizona State, Kansas, LSU, Princeton, USF and Washington State) in addition to fellow C-USA school ODU.
Follow the Action:
For the most up-to-date information on Rice Tennis follow the Owls on Twitter @RiceTennis or Instagram @ricewtennis or like Rice Women's Tennis on Facebook.
Players Mentioned
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
WBB: Rice vs. Marshall Postgame Presser
Wednesday, March 09
VB: Rice-Texas Postgame Presser
Saturday, December 04
VB: Rice-San Diego Postgame Presser
Thursday, December 02