Tennis Concludes Fall Competition With Big Green Invitational

AMHERST, Mass. - University of Massachusetts tennis wraps up its fall slate of action with a trip to the Big Green Invitational, hosted by Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, from Fri., Nov. 2 - Sun., Nov. 4.

Massachusetts is familiar with the Big Green Invitational as a repeat attendee, having competed in the tournament during the 2017-18 season. Last year, the Minutewomen squared off with Dartmouth, Minnesota and Yale while in Hanover and took home 12 victories between singles and doubles competition.

Landmark Success For Massachusetts Dots ITA Northeast Regional Outcomes

• Massachusetts tennis sent four competitors to the 2018 holding of the ITA Northeast Regional at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, which included trips to the singles bracket Round of 16 by Janja Kovacevic and Jodie Lawrence-Taylor.

• Kovacevic avoided the first round thanks to her No. 22 seeding for the tournament, and bested Princeton's Nathalie Rodilosso as well as No. 11 Jennifer Kerr from Columbia to reach the Sweet Sixteen. Lawrence-Taylor needed three wins to reach the final 16 spots as she outperformed Quinnipiac's Dominique Vasile (first round), the No. 14 seed in Columbia's Melissa Sakar (second round) and No. 19 seed Natasha Irani from Boston College (round of 32).

• Recaps: Day One | Day Two | Day Three | Day Four

Maroon and White Challenge Boston College, Boston University and Yale At Bulldog Invitational

• The Minutewomen spent their second weekend of competition challenging regional rivals Boston College, Boston University and Yale during three days at the Bulldog Invitational at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., from Fri., Sept. 28 - Sun., Sept. 30. Massachusetts won 15 matches in-total, while the weekend included a balanced effort overall as seven Minutewomen brought home at least one victory.

• Recaps: Boston College | Yale | Boston University

Minutewomen Put Forth Strong Outing At Brown Invitational

• Massachusetts opened its fall slate with three days at the Brown Invitational, hosted by Brown in Providence, R.I. During the Fri., Sept. 21 - Sun., Sept. 23 series of dual matches, the Minutewomen challenged themselves against Rutgers, the host-Bears and Stony Brook and won 20 matches total.

• Recaps: Rutgers | Brown | Stony Brook

Tennis To Host Alumni Reunion On Sat., Oct. 20

• The University of Massachusetts tennis program and head coach Juancarlos Nunez announced the 2018 UMass Tennis Alumni Reunion is scheduled for Sat., Oct. 20. The day's events will bring together former letterwinners from the men's and women's programs and is open to all. Alumni wishing to attend can register for the event here.

• The day begins at 10 a.m. with breakfast, a meet-and-greet with the current student-athletes and an open practice. Following the completion of practice, the team and alumni wishing to participate will play a friendly doubles tournament at 11 a.m. At 1:30 p.m., the team and alumni will venture to McGuirk Alumni Stadium for a pregame tailgate in the Commonwealth Club. Complimentary admission to the football team's 3:30 p.m. contest against Coastal Carolina at McGuirk Alumni Stadium will be provided as well. Following completion of the football game, the 2018 UMass Tennis Alumni Reunion will head to the Hangar Pub and Grill for a postgame social event at 7 p.m.

Back For Another Round

• Massachusetts returns eight members from its 2017-18 squad, including senior Ruth Crawford, juniors Ashley Avery, Martina Bocchi, Tami Comins and Janja Kovacevic and sophomores Jovana Bogicevic, Sarah Mezini and Anna Napadiy. Crawford, the team's captain, was an Atlantic 10 All-Conference First Team selection as a junior one year ago while Kovacevic earned second team accolades as a sophomore.
• The returnees include four of the six primary singles competitors from last season in the No. 1 (Crawford), No. 3 (Kovacevic), No. 5 (Napadiy) and No. 6 (Bocchi) players. Crawford and Kovacevic were also primarily paired at No. 2 doubles while Napadiy played alongside Avery at No. 3 doubles.

Signing Class Ranked Nationally

• University of Massachusetts tennis head coach Juancarlos Nunez's first recruiting class as the program leader ranks No. 18 in the nation among mid-major programs via TennisRecruiting.net, the premier recruiting network for collegiate tennis. The class comprises a pair of incoming Minutewomen, Jodie Lawrence-Taylor and Jasmin Tripathy. Massachusetts is the only Atlantic 10 program ranked in the mid-major top-25.

• Lawrence-Taylor joins Massachusetts following a stellar youth career in her native Great Britain, as she was selected to represent the country in tennis on four occasions, one each in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2016. Additionally, she competed on the international level across Europe and holds career wins over former Pac-12 standout Abbie Probert (Colorado), fellow British native Aleksandra Topalovic (Ranked 671 in Junior ITF; University of Memphis signee) and two more over additional Top-1000 Junior ITF world-ranked players in Summer Yardley (498) and Mae McCutchon (955).

• Tripathy, a four-star recruit according to TennisRecruiting.net, ranked as high as No. 79 nationally and No. 25 in the Southeast section for the class of 2018. She reached the semifinals of the Georgia Bowl National in March, 2017 and was a quarterfinalist at the Southern Spring National in April, 2017. Tripathy was also a semifinalist at the Macon, Georgia, National in June, 2017 and holds 11 victories over recruits ranked within the top 100 nationally at the time of competition this year.

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