KINGSVILLE, Texas – On May 4th, 2021, the Texas A&M-Kingsville women's tennis team learned they'd accomplished something the program had never done before: earning a berth in the NCAA Tournament. More than nine months later, the Javelinas begin their quest to return to that event and their first test comes on Tuesday, when they'll be taking on the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders at 2:30 p.m. in Corpus Christi, Texas.
"We're very excited," said coach Autumn Wollenzien. "They are in great shape, so that is a good thing. For now, we just need to hit some more balls and we'll be good. [Our goals are] to be ready for the first match, to be prepared. It's a long season, so the first match, you want to feel like you are ready to hit the first ball.
"Corpus is always a great barometer for us to know how in shape we are or how much fight they have. It's typically a first-time look for me. Corpus is a barometer for me to know exactly where we stand and exactly where we need to be by the end of the year."
TAMUK's matchup with A&M-CC will be their first action since a productive fall that saw three players impress enough to earn spots in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association South Central Regional Rankings. That group consisted of sophomores Raina Zaffar (Guwahati, India), Milou ter Morsche (Goor, Netherlands) and Alessia Maier (Hechingen, Germany).
Maier's fall concluded with three victories at the ITA South Central Regional, two of which came at the expense of conference opponents. This came after a 2020-21 campaign that earned Maier an All-Lone Star Conference Honorable Mention distinction.
One of the players who joined Maier on that all-conference roster was ter Morsche, who followed that honor up with a fall that began with her advancing all the way to the Championship Round of the F Singles Draw of the Contender CrossFit Islander Open. She added two more triumphs in the regional tournament, one of which was a victory over 12th-ranked Karolina Glowinska from Cameron.
Maier and Zaffar earned a spot in the regional doubles rankings after putting together a resume that included a pair regional tournament triumphs over opponents from Cameron and DBU. Maier and Zaffar will be aiming to improve upon a 2020-21 season which they earned five wins in doubles play, four of which came in LSC competition.
Another returner coming off an all-conference 2020-21 season is junior Maya Donkor (McLean, Va.), who ended the fall by making it to the final day of ITA Regionals. The junior from Virginia earned three consecutive wins in straight sets to advance all the way to the consolation bracket semifinals. Donkor's All-LSC honors in 2020-21 included the second all-league doubles selection of her career, as she tallied seven victories in doubles play.
At the conclusion of Tuesday's match, be sure to visit Javelinaathletics.com for a recap of all the day's action. To keep up with Javelina tennis throughout the season, follow @JavelinaTennis on Twitter and Instagram, like the Javelina Sports Facebook page, subscribe to the Javelina Athletics YouTube channel and visit Javelinaathletics.com.
Get the Official Javelina Athletics Mobile App presented by Whataburger today! Download on the App Store or Get It on Google Play to keep up with all the news, scores, and highlights of your favorite Javelinas!
