THIS WEEK: The Washington State Tennis team (4-0) heads to Lincoln, Neb. this weekend for matchups against Wichita State and Nebraska, Jan. 25-26, with both matches being contested at the Sid and Hazel Dillon Tennis Center. The Cougars begin the two-match road trip Saturday against Wichita State in a neutral site match beginning at 11 a.m. PT. The following day, the Cougars face Nebraska in a 9:30 a.m. PT match. Both matches will be live streamed and can be found HERE. For the Nebraska match, live stats will be available HERE.
 
SCOUTING WICHITA STATE: The Shockers enter the weekend with a 1-1 record prior to facing Nebraska on Friday evening. Wichita State opened the season with a 4-0 loss to No. 16 Oklahoma, before rebounding with a 4-0 win over Wyoming. The Shockers are led by sophomore Xin Tong Wang, who is ranked No. 62 nationally. Saturday's contest marks the second meeting in the all-time series between the two schools, the first being a 6-1 Cougar victory in 1996 in Albuquerque, N.M.
 
SCOUTING NEBRASKA: Nebraska enters the weekend with a 2-0 record after sweeping a pair of dual matches at UC Riverside, winning both matches 4-0. Last season, Nebraska posted a 14-11 overall record, going 3-8 in Big Ten matches. Nebraska leads the all-times series, 3-2, including a 5-2 win in Lincoln during the 2023 season, the last time the teams met.
 
MURPHY CAPTURES WCC SINGLES PLAYER OF THE WEEK HONORS: Cougar redshirt-junior Maxine Murphy was named the West Coast Conference Singles Player of the Week, the conference announced Jan. 21. Murphy went 3-0 on the week, all at No. 2 singles, to help WSU win all three of its matches against Idaho, Eastern Washington and Michigan State, all in straight sets. This is Murphy's first WCC Singles Player of the Week award and her second conference award overall in 2025, having teamed with Eva Alvarez Sande to earn the WCC Doubles Team of the Week following the first week of the season.
 
ALVAREZ SANDE, MURPHY CAPTURED WCC DOUBLES TEAM OF THE WEEK HONORS: Washington State junior Eva Alvarez Sande and redshirt-junior Maxine Murphy were named the West Coast Conference Women's Doubles Team of the Week, the conference announced Jan. 14. WSU opened its 2025 dual match schedule last Saturday in convincing fashion, defeating UC Davis 7-0 at Hollingbery Fieldhouse. Alvarez Sande and Murphy started strong with a 6-3 win at No. 1 doubles over Mika Ikemori and Isabella Bringas, helping WSU capture the opening doubles point. In singles play, both Alvarez Sande and Murphy, playing No.1 and No. 2, respectively, captured straight-set wins as the Cougars won their season-opener for the fourth-straight year.
 
COUGARS TO PLAY IN WEST COAST CONFERENCE: For the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons, the Cougars will be an affiliate member of the West Coast Conference. When conference realignment impacted the Pac-12 Conference following the 2023-24 season, Cougar Tennis was one of 10 WSU athletic programs to become WCC affiliate members. The membership status will be for two years until the Pac-12 resumes full-membership status beginning with the 2026-27 season.
 
LAST TIME OUT: WSU posted a 6-1 win over Michigan State in a neutral-site match played in Spokane. WSU took the doubles point then won five of six singles matches to improve to 3-0 against the Spartans all-time.
 
NEXT UP: Following this weekend's matches in Lincoln, Neb., the Cougars return home to face BYU, Friday, Jan. 31. The match begins at Noon at the Simmelink Tennis Courts at Hollingbery Fieldhouse.
 
ROSTER BREAKDOWN: For the 2024-25 season, the Cougars have three freshmen to accompany the six returners. The roster consists of seniors Hania Abouelsaad and Elyse Tse, juniors Maxine Murphy, Eva Alvarez Sande, Yura Nakagawa, sophomore Martina Markova and freshman Chisato Kanemaki, Martina Puvill and Madhu Satishbabu.
 
COACH RAQUEL ATAWO: Raquel Atawo is in her fourth 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 No. 10 world ranking in doubles.
  
FOLLOW THE COUGARS: Keep up with Washington State tennis by following @WSUCougarTennis on Twitter, @wsucougartennis on Instagram, and Washington State Cougar Tennis on Facebook.