SAN ANTONIO - The UTSA women's tennis team earned the No. 8 seed and will face UAB on Thursday at 12 p.m. in the first round of the Conference USA Championships, hosted by North Texas in Denton, Texas.
The Roadrunners ended the regular season with a 13-9 record. UTSA ended its season with a 5-2 win over Houston on April 9, its first win over the Cougars in program history. UTSA has totaled a 63-55 (.534) mark in singles and a 32-25 (.561) record in doubles as a team for the 2023 season.
Aleksandra Zlatarova has dominated in singles play throughout the season, toting a 16-3 record at the No. 1 singles spot. Lexie Weir (14-7) and Magda Tuells (11-9) have also been exceptional at the second and fourth courts, respectively. A trio of Roadrunners have double-digit wins in doubles, including Zlatarova (14-4), Weir (13-7), Tuells (12-5) and Fatima Gutierrez (11-6). Zlatarova and Tuells have a 9-1 record playing together, while Weir and Gutierrez hold a 5-2 record paired up.
UTSA has won one conference championship tournament which was the Southland Conference Championship in 2002. Coincidentally, current volunteer coach Svenja Fuhrig was on that Roadrunner team and earned First Team All-Southland Conference in both singles and doubles play.
UAB ended the regular season with a 9-9 overall record, concluding it with a 6-1 win over Middle Tennessee on April 15. Annalisa Smith leads the Blazers with a 11-5 record, splitting time between the third through fifth courts. UAB has struggled at the top spot, toting a 3-13 record at No. 1. The No. 1 doubles pair of Sydney Clarke and Maggie Smith hold a 9-5 record, while Smith and Vanessa Mellynchuk have a 11-5 record at the third court.
The Roadrunners and Blazers have played each other four times as UAB has won three times and UTSA has won once.
This matchup will look very similar to the last time the two teams played each other. That last matchup was at the 2021 C-USA Championships when UTSA earned the No. 9 seed and UAB earned the No. 8 seed. The Roadrunners and Blazers played each other in the first round that year on April 22 with UAB coming out on top, 4-0.
The winner of this matchup will go on to face No. 1 seed/No. 38 ranked FIU in the quarterfinal round on Friday at 10 am.
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