The Texas A&M women’s tennis team kicks off its fall schedule Thursday as the Aggies begin competition in the four-day Big 5 Challenge at TCU’s Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center in Fort Worth.
“There is lots of excitement in the air as we head into our first tournament of the 2018-19 season,” said Mark Weaver, who is entering his fourth season as head coach of the Aggies. “We will have the opportunity to see our four freshmen, who account for half of our roster, compete for the first time in the maroon and white. Riley McQuaid and Dorthea Faa-Hviding, who both have worked very hard on their games over the summer and also in our first few weeks of practice this semester, will be competing as well. We are all looking forward to and excited to get things rolling this fall season.”
Weaver returns four sophomores, including McQuaid and Faa-Hviding as well as Iulia Ivascu and Tatiana Makarova, from last year's team that went 17-11 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for a 19th consecutive year. The four freshmen—Jessica Anzo, Jayci Goldsmith, Renee McBryde and Katya Townsend—make up a recruiting class that was ranked No. 2 in the nation in Tennis Recruiting Network's Top 25 Spring Rankings.
Other teams represented in the Big 5 Challenge include Notre Dame, Virginia and Virginia Tech of the Atlantic Coast Conference; TCU, Texas Tech, Kansas and Kansas State of the Big 12 Conference; Arizona and Arizona State from the Pac-12 Conference; and Auburn, Georgia and Missouri of the Southeastern Conference.
