Massachusetts Tennis Treks East For Familiar Ivy League Foe Match-Ups

AMHERST, Mass. - University of Massachusetts tennis continues its five-match road trip against two familiar foes out of the Ivy League in Brown on Fri., Feb. 1 and Harvard on Sun., Feb. 3. The Minutewomen begin at the Bears at 3:30 p.m. while the match against the Crimson starts at 9:30 a.m.

Last Time Out • UMass Fights Back For 4-3 Win At St. John's

• University of Massachusetts tennis rallied for a 4-3 win at 2018 Big East Champion St. John's on Sunday evening. After UMass dropped the doubles point and a pair of singles matches en route to a 3-1 deficit, the Minutewomen rallied with back-to-back-to-back singles victories for the team victory.

• Jasmin Tripathy (No. 6), Ruth Crawford (No. 3), Jodie Lawrence-Taylor (No. 2) and Martina Bocchi (No. 5) provided the singles victories that vaulted Massachusetts to the come-from-behind triumph.

Massachusetts Opens The Spring With Sweep Of Providence

• University of Massachusetts tennis began its spring campaign with a dominant sweep of Providence at the Bay Road Tennis Club on Sat., Jan. 26. During the day, the Maroon and White won all three doubles matches before the team claimed victory in each of the six singles matches.

• The Minutewomen won comfortably in all but one match as Jodie Lawrence-Taylor and Martina Bocchi needed a tie-breaker for the 7-6 (2) margin over Risa Takenaka and Sera Satkowski. The next-closest score was Bocchi's 6-3, 6-2 victory over Satkowski at No. 3 singles.

UMass Tennis Receives Grant Recognizing ITA Community Service Commitment

• University of Massachusetts tennis received unique recognition from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) for its civic commitment as one of only three programs nationally to earn ITA Community Service Month grants on Wednesday, as announced by the ITA.

• All teams that performed 20-plus hours of community service were entered in a drawing, where the team selected received a $500 ITA grant and the University of Massachusetts team took home the prize. During the month of October, the team was involved in assisting Habitat for Humanity.

• In addition to the University of Massachusetts' grant, the College of Charleston team won the Limoneira Hours Challenge while the University of Alabama Birmingham generated the most social media engagement and earned an ITA grant as a result.

Shiran Arol Wiegand Joins UMass Tennis Family

• The University of Massachusetts tennis and head coach Juancarlos Nunez announced the signing of Shiran Arol Wiegand to a National Letter of Intent on Nov. 19, 2018. An accomplished competitor in her native Israel as well as internationally, Arol Wiegand joins the program following two years of military service in her home country.

• Ranked as high as 618 in the ITF Juniors highlighted by reaching the Singles Final of the ITF G4 in Bat Yam, Israel, Arol Wiegand rached No. 2 in the Israeli Junior rankings and No. 8 in the Israeli Women's rankings. Additionally, she represented Israel in the Maccabiah World Games, winning the silver in mixed doubles in 2017, and is currently serving in the Israeli Army before she starts at UMass in the Fall, 2019.

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).

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.

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