SAN ANTONIO – Marking the first 2024 fall competition for seventh-year head coach Ki Kroll’s Roadrunners, UTSA women’s tennis will travel to Corpus Christi this weekend for three days of action at the Jake Frederick Memorial Islander Open, hosted by Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Kroll returns three players from a very successful 17-7 finish in 2023; Ekua Youri, Vittoria Baccino and Milica Milosavljevic. Coming off a stellar rookie year since arriving from Botswana, Youri led the team with a 15-4 singles record and was 13-5 in doubles. Baccino went 11-8 on the year and Milosavljevic was 2-2 in singles play. Bolstering the squad for 2024-25, the Roadrunners added six new players, including Arina Babenko, Natalia Castaneda Guerrero, Letizia Corsini, Aoka Nagasawa, Katherine Robinson and Valeria Sanchez.
Scheduled to compete in Corpus Christi, beginning at 9 a.m. each day, UTSA will see first-week action for Youri, Babenko, Milosavljevic and Robinson. Babenko was a junior college All-American at Cowley College, finishing at the No. spot in the final ITA singles rankings and leading her team to their first NJCAA Division I National Championship. Robinson was a District Champion in Grapevine, Texas, helping her squad to a second-place Regional finish.
Competition will heat up quickly for the Roadrunner women’s tennis squad, as next week brings the H-E-B Invitational in Waco, while a select contingent will be scheduled for ITA All-Americans in Cary, N.C.
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