Women’s Tennis to Face Georgia Tech in NCAA Tournament

The Princeton women’s tennis team will take on Georgia Tech this Friday in the first round of the NCAA tournament. As of Apr. 26, Princeton was the No. 40 team in the country, and Georgia Tech stood at No. 16.

The match will mark a record third-straight NCAA appearance by the women’s tennis team. In 2014, the Tigers won a match at the tournament for the first time, beating Arizona State. Last year, they lost to South Carolina in a close 4-3 match.

The team’s record this year is 13-9 overall and 5-2 in the Ivy League. Three Tigers received Ivy League honors last month. Senior Amanda Muliawan was named a second-team All-Ivy League honoree and first-team All-Ivy in singles. Muliawan plays at the No. 1 singles spot and is 19-13 overall in singles matches. She reached a national ITA ranking of No. 86 in February and has beaten three ITA-ranked players this year, including No. 36 Madison Westby of USC.

Sophomore Katrine Steffensen earned her first career Ivy League nod, receiving a place on second-team Ivy singles. She plays No. 2 singles and holds an overall singles record of 24-16 this year. Her highest national ranking is No. 87, which she reached in January and February.

Head coach Laura Granville was named Coach of the Year for the second year in a row. Under her direction, the team climbed out of a hole in mid-February to reenter the ITA rankings. Over the spring, the Tigers have progressed through the top 75 to the No. 40 spot, and hold the top spot in the Ivy rankings.

“I think our drive and hard work got us through some of the tougher matches,” Katrine Steffensen said, explaining her team’s progression through the Ivy season. “I also believe our Fall Season and Spring Break trip helped a lot. We played some really good teams, like Alabama and Arizona State and even though we didn’t win, we saw that we could hang with them and really give them a run for their money. We also had a few good wins, like against Rice over Spring Break, that gave us both confidence and momentum going into Ivy Season.”

The Georgia Tech women’s tennis team is 17-8 overall this season and 11-3 in their conference, the Atlantic Coast Conference. Georgia Tech boasts three ITA top-125 players: No. 32 sophomore Johnnise Renaud, No. 44 sophomore Paige Hourigan and No. 125 junior Rasheeda McAdoo. Hourigan and senior Kendal Woodard were the No. 12 doubles team.

In spite of Georgia Tech’s higher ranking, the Princeton women’s tennis team has high expectations for its trip to the NCAA tournament.

“I think the main thing for us is to have the mentality that we have nothing to lose, but at the same time to truly believe that we can win,” said Steffensen. “We plan to put pressure on Georgia Tech instead of on ourselves and see what happens, but that being said, we all have high expectations for NCAAs and hope to go far.”