(October 12, 2023) THIS WEEK: The Washington State Tennis team returns to the courts this weekend to compete in the 2023 ITA Northwest Regionals, Oct. 13-17 hosted by Stanford University. All matches will be held at the Taube Tennis Center on the Stanford campus.
 
2023 ITA NORTHWEST REGIONALS: Play begins at the ITA Northwest Regionals Friday, Oct. 13 and runs through the championship match on Tue. Oct. 17. The singles draw consists of 128 players, while the doubles draw consists of 64 teams. Washington State will have seven players in the main singles draw and three teams in the doubles draw.
 
Along with the Cougars, Pac-12 teams participating include the host Stanford, California, Oregon, and Washington, along with Division I programs throughout Northern California, Washington and Oregon.
 
Sophomore Eva Alvarez Sande enters the singles draw as a No. 9 seed while she and Elyse Tse are seeded No. 4 in doubles.
 
ROSTER BREAKDOWN: For the 2023-24 season the Cougars will have one new player to accompany the eight returners. The returning roster consists of senior Fifa Kumhom, redshirt-junior Hania Abouelsaad, juniors Stefaniia Mikhailova, Maxine Murphy and Elyse Tse, along with sophomores Eva Alvarez Sande, Yura Nakagawa and Tiffany Phout. Freshman Martina Markov joins the Cougar lineup this season.
 
FALL SCHEDULE: In addition to the ITA Northwest Regionals, the remaining events on Washington State's Fall schedule include the Gonzaga Invitational (Oct. 27-29) and the ITA National Fall Championships (Nov. 1-5).
 
STRONG SUMMER FOR COUGAR TENNIS: Cougar Tennis players made an impression on the ITF circuit over the summer as Eva Alvarez Sande, Elyse Tse, Fifa Kumhom and Hania Abouelsaad all played tour events. Elyse Tse reached a career-best ranking of 1,024 as she was 7-4 over the summer, reaching the quarterfinals of the W15 Caloundra event in Australia. Playing mainly in Spain and Portugal, Eva Alvarez Sande reached the main draw in four summer ITF tournaments while Fifa Kumhom found success on the doubles court, reaching the semifinals of one event and the finals of the W15 Nakhon Si Thammarat tournament in Thailand.
 
COACH RAQUEL ATAWO: Raquel Atawo begins her third season as head coach of the Cougars after being named to the position July 2, 2021. Atawo arrived in Pullman having spent the 2021 season as the assistant coach at Auburn and prior to that, spent 15 years on the WTA Tour, where she reached at No. 10 world ranking in doubles.