THIS WEEK: The Cougars (7-1) travel to West Lafayette, Ind. to face Purdue in a dual match, Saturday, Feb. 16 at 10 a.m. PT. Last season the Cougars defeated Purdue 7-0 in Pullman.

ABOUT PURDUE: Purdue enters the match with a 5-2 record on the season.  The Boilermakers defeated No. 12 Mississippi in the ITA Kickoff Weekend and its only two losses have come against No. 24 Syracuse and Notre Dame.

LAST TIME OUT: The Cougars defeated Baylor in a dual match 4-3. It was for the first time since the 1991 season the two teams have faced each other. 

UP NEXT: The Cougars will face Brigham Young University and Seattle University in a doubleheader at the Simmelink Tennis Courts at Hollingbery Fieldhouse, Friday, Feb. 22. The BYU match begins at noon with Seattle set to start at 5 p.m. The Cougars defeated BYU 4-0 last season at the BYU Indoor Tennis Courts and also defeated Seattle last season in Pullman, 4-0.

ITA RANKINGS: Sophomore Michaela Bayerlova jumped to No. 63 in the most recent ITA women's singles rankings, an improvement of 20 spots from the previous ranking. Bayerlova is 5-0 in dual matches this season and 9-2 overall. Senior Tiffany Mylonas and Junior Melisa Ates share No. 115 in ITA women's singles ranking.  

MYLONAS STARTS STRONG: Tiffany Mylonas is off to a strong start in her final season. The senior is 16-1, with her 16-0 streak to open the season she has tied the third-longest winning streak in school history and the third-longest streak to start a season.

COUGARS OFF TO FAST START: The start to the 2018-19 season has been a strong one for many WSU players. Senior Aneta Miksovska is 15-2 while junior Melisa Ates is 14-1. Three freshman have also been impressive in their debuts, as Yang Lee is 13-3, Hikaru Sato is 12-5 and Savanna Ly-Nguyen is 8-3. As a team, WSU is a combined 92-21 (.814) in singles play this season.

MIKSOVSKA CLIMBING CAREER WINS LIST: Cougar senior Aneta Miksovska enters the week with 89 career victories, sixth on the all-time wins list at WSU. Former Cougar player and assistant coach, Eka Burduli, is fifth with 90 career wins while Ksenia Googe is fourth with 92.

COUGARS ADD SAVANNA LY-NGUYEN AND MADDIE EGAN: Washington State University Head Tennis Coach Lisa Hart recently announced that Savanna Ly-Nguyen has signed a national letter of intent to join the Cougar tennis program and enrolled at WSU in January 2019. Ly-Nguyen, a native of Brampton, Ontario, Canada, has been one of the top juniors in her Canadian province throughout her career. Maddie Egan will also join the Cougar lineup in the fall of 2019. Egan is currently a senior at Rogers High School in Puyallup and was named the Washington State Tennis Player of the Year by the Tacoma Athletic Commission in 2018

BAYERLOVA HAS ANOTHER STRONG FALL SEASON: Sophomore Michaela Bayerlova played in two professional tournaments during the fall, highlighted by reaching the final of the $15,000 ITF Hilton Head event. Following the tournament, Bayerlova saw her world ranking rise to No. 600. She moved on to the $25,000 ITF Charleston tournament, winning her first-round match before falling to the event's top seed, Reix Sherazad of France, ranked No. 293, in the second round. Bayerlova began the fall season at the ITA/Oracle Master's, her only collegiate event of the fall. After posting wins in her first two rounds, both against nationally-ranked players, Bayerlova fell to Pepperdine's Evgeniya Levashova, ranked No. 41 nationally, in the quarterfinals. Bayerlova and Baylor's Sven Lah also reached the championship match in the mixed doubles draw. Bayerlova enters the spring season with an ITA singles ranking of 83, after finishing the 2018 season at 29.
 
ROSTER BREAKDOWN: For the 2018-19 season the Cougars will have four new players to accompany the five returners. The returning roster consists of seniors Aneta Miksovska and Tiffany Mylonas, along with juniors Melisa Ates and Ege Tomey, and sophomore Michaela Bayerlova. Newcomers include junior transfer Jovana Knezevic along with freshmen Yang Lee, Savanna Ly-Nguyen and Hikaru Sato.

COACH HART: Lisa Hart is in her 16th season as the head coach at Washington State. Hart has accumulated a record of 209-178 (.540) over her tenure, finishing the 2018 season with a 21-7 record.