THIS WEEK: Washington State Tennis (8-2) continues its four-match road trip as it travels to San Diego to face the University of San Diego and UC Santa Barbara. The San Diego match is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 28 at 1:30 p.m. followed by UCSB, Saturday at 11 a.m., also in San Diego. The Cougars enter the match ranked No. 43 while San Diego is ranked No. 32.
 
SCOUTING SAN DIEGO: San Diego enters the match with a 5-3 record, having won its last four matches. The Toreros are 4-0 at home this season and coming off an upset of then-No. 22 USC. San Diego's top two singles players, Solymar Colling and Elizabeth Goldsmith, are ranked No. 59 and 124 nationally, respectively. San Diego leads the all-time series, 7-4.
 
SCOUTING UC SANTA BARBARA: The Gauchos enters the match with a 4-5 overall records, having won their last two outings. All five of UCSB's losses have come against nationally-ranked teams. WSU leads the all-time series against the Gauchos, 6-1.
 
LAST TIME OUT: WSU posted a 7-0 victory over Fordham, rebounding from a 4-3 loss at No. 21 Columbia the day prior.
 
UP NEXT: WSU returns home to open Pac-12 play when it hosts Colorado, Friday, March 6 at 1:30 p.m.
 
COUGARS IN ITA RANKINGS: Following the latest release of the ITA Tennis Rankings, the Cougars dropped eight spots as they fell from No. 35 to 43. Senior Melisa Ates remains ranked while junior Michaela Bayerlova improves from her 2020 ranking debut two weeks ago. Bayerlova, who has finished each of her first two seasons in the Top 50, moved up 16 spots from three weeks ago to a season-best No. 63. Ates, who started 2020 at No. 103 and rose to a career-best 91 three weeks ago, has moved to No. 107.
 
ATES CLIMBING WINS LIST: Senior Melisa Ates enters the weekend with 88 career singles victories, 7th on WSU's all-time list. Next up is one-time record holder and former assistant coach Ekaterina Burduli at 90.
 
LIVE STATS/VIDEO: For all home matches, fans wishing to follow the Cougars can go to wsu.statbroadcast.com to get live results. Live video can be found at wsucougars.com.
 
COUGARS SIGN TWO FOR 2020 CLASS: During the 2019-20 signing period, Head Coach Lisa Hart added two future Cougars with the signings of Hania Abouelsaad and Lunda "Fifa" Kumhom. Abouelsaad, a native of Alexandria, Egypt, has been one of the top juniors in Egypt over the past few years and has a career-best 10.9 UTR. In 2019, she has reached the quarterfinals in four of her last five tournaments, capturing the J5 Cairo title last month, her fourth career International Tennis Federation junior title. She has reached an ITF Junior career-high of 169 in 2018 and is ranked among the top juniors in Egypt. Kumhom, a native of Bangkok, Thailand, has been one of the top juniors in Thailand over the past few years and has a career-best 11.44 UTR. In 2019, Kumhom reached three the semifinals in three singles events, two G2 and one G3, while also captured two doubles titles and reaching the final of a third. She was a member of Thailand's ASEAN School Games and was a reserve for the 2019 Southeast Asian Games team. She holds a career-best ITF junior ranking of 132, achieved early in 2019.
 
ROSTER BREAKDOWN: For the 2019-20 season the Cougars will have three new players to accompany the five returners. The returning roster consists of seniors Melisa Ates and Jovana Knezevic, junior Michaela Bayerlova and sophomores Yang Lee, Savanna Ly-Nguyen and Hikaru Sato. Newcomers include freshman Maddie Egan, Pang Jittakoat and Carla Quadflieg.
 
COACH HART: Lisa Hart is in her 17th season as the head coach at Washington State. Hart has accumulated a 228-190 (.545) record her tenure, finishing last season with a 19-11 record and a third trip to the NCAA Championships.