TCU Takes Road Trip to California
2/13/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
FORT WORTH, Texas - The No. 17 TCU women's tennis team will hit the road to California for a tough road test, as the Horned Frogs are set to face No. 4 UCLA on Saturday, Feb. 14 and No. 30 Pepperdine on Monday, Feb. 16.
The Horned Frogs (4-3) will open the road test with the defending NCAA Champion Bruins (5-1) at 3:30 p.m., CST, on Saturday before traveling to Malibu to take on the Waves (2-2) at 3 p.m., on Monday.
TCU Noteables
The Frogs are coming off its first appearance since 2007 in the ITA National Indoor Team Championships, where the team finished with a 1-2 record. TCU upset No. 4 Duke, but fell to No. 5 Cal and No. 10 Virginia in its final matches.
TCU moved up to No. 17 in the team rankings after its strong showing at national indoors and also gained two singles and one doubles ranking. Team singles leader Simona Parajova moved into the rankings at No. 47 and is 13-3 on the season and 4-1 against ranked opponents. Stefanie Tan checks in at No. 76 with six singles wins and two wins against ranked opponents.
Tan also pairs up with Seda Arantekin for a doubles ranking of No. 39. The duo have seven wins on the season and have picked up two wins over ranked opponents.
Scouting the Bruins
UCLA was the preseason No. 1 in the country after winning the NCAA Championship a year ago, but fell to No. 4 in the rankings this week after dropping its first match of the season to Georgia in the ITA National Indoor Team Championships last weekend. The Bruins rebounded with a 4-0 victory over Miami.
The Bruins have five ranked singles players in No. 4 Robin Anderson, No. 9 Chanelle Van Nguyen, No. 31 Kyle McPhillips, No. 45 Jennifer Brady and No. 101 Kaitlin Ray. McPhillips leads all players with a 15-4 record, while Ray has totaled a 14-4 record. Anderson and Brady are undefeated on the season in singles with an 8-0 and 5-0 records on the season, respectively.
UCLA also have one ranked doubles pair in No. 2 Catherine Harrison and McPhillips. The duo are 13-2 on the season and 5-0 in dual matches.
Scouting the Waves
The defending West Coast Conference champion Waves were picked to finish first in the WCC this year and are 2-2 to start the spring season. Pepperdine has defeated Wichita State and San Diego State, but dropped two matches to USC.
Pepperdine boasts three ranked singles players with Lorraine Guillermo leading the way at No. 41, while Apichaya Rungierdkriangkral and Michaela Capannolo sit at No. 109 and No. 118, respectively. Guillermo leads the team with a 16-4 record, while Rungierdkriangkral has 12 wins and Capannolo has totaled 10 wins in singles action this season.
All-Time Series
TCU and UCLA will be facing off for only the third time in program history, with the Bruins holding all of the victories with a 2-0 advantage in the series record. This will be the second time the two teams will compete in Los Angeles, while also marking the second straight year the teams have faced each other in a dual match.
The Horned Frogs and Pepperdine are taking each other on for the eighth time in program history and the fifth time in Malibu. TCU holds the slight advantage with a 4-3 record in the all-time series, with the Frogs taking the victory in three of the last four meetings. The last time the two teams faced each other was in 2013 in Fort Worth, with TCU claiming a 6-1 win.
Live Results
Live scoring of the match against UCLA will be available at UCLABruins.com, while results against Pepperdine can be found at PepperdineSports.com. A final recap and results will be available on GoFrogs.com following the completion of competition on each day. In-match updates can also be found by following TCU women's tennis on twitter (@TCUWomensTennis).
