THIS WEEK: The Washington State Tennis team (5-1) returns to Pullman to close out the month of January by hosting Brigham Young University, Friday at Noon at the Simmelink Tennis Courts at Hollingbery Fieldhouse. Free donuts will be provided for fans in attendance. The Cougars are 3-0 at home this season and looking to extend their home winning streak. The BYU match will be streamed live HERE with live stats provided HERE.
 
SCOUTING BYU: BYU is off to a 2-2 start for the 2025 season. The Cougars opened the year with wins over Weber State and Utah Tech, before dropping its last two matches to Baylor and Maryland at the ITA Kickoff Weekend in Austin, Texas. Washington State leads the all-time series, 14-8, though BYU captured a 5-2 home win in 2023, the last time the teams met. The last match in Pullman, to open the 2022 season, WSU came away with the 6-1 win.
 
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.
 
COUGAR NOTES:

• The doubles team of Eva Alvarez Sane and Maxine Murphy were named the WCC Doubles Team of the Week, Jan. 14.
• Redshirt-junior Maxine Murphy is 6-0 in dual matches this season, all at No. 2 singles
• Sophomore Martina Markow is 5-0 in dual matches, 2-0 at No. 5, 3-0 at No. 6
• Under Raquel Atawo, WSU is 11-0 at home in the month of January

 
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 dropped a 5-2 contest at Nebraska last Sunday after posting a 5-2 victory over Wichita State the previous day.
 
NEXT UP: Following the BYU match, WSU returns to the road for a pair of matches in San Luis Obispo, Calif., Feb. 7 against Cal Poly and Feb. 8 against Fresno State.
 
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 LIVE: For all Cougar home tennis matches at Hollingbery Fieldhouse, live video streams of each match can be found HERE while live scoring is available HERE.
 
FOLLOW THE COUGARS: Keep up with Washington State tennis by following @WSUCougarTennis on Twitter, @wsucougartennis on Instagram, and Washington State Cougar Tennis on Facebook.