(February 13, 2025) THIS WEEK: The Washington State Tennis team (7-2) concludes it's three-match swing away from Pullman Friday before returning home Sunday for a pair of matches. The week begins Friday, Feb. 14 when the Cougars head to Seattle to face Washington in a 1 p.m. match at the Nordstrom Tennis Center. WSU then returns to Pullman Sunday, Feb. 16 to host Boise State at 10 a.m. and Seattle U at 2:30 p.m., both matches at the Simmelink Tennis Courts at Hollingbery Fieldhouse. The Boise State match will have free donuts for fans, with free pizza provided during the Seattle match.
 
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. Live video and stats for the match at Washington can be found HERE.
 
SCOUTING WASHINGTON: The Huskies enter the match with a 3-1 record with wins over Hawaii, Portland and Gonzaga. Their lone loss came at UCLA as part of ITA Kickoff Weekend. Freshman Carina Syrtveit is ranked at No. 123 nationally while the doubles team of Reece Carter and Alexia Jacobs are No. 35. Washington leads the all-time series, 53-13.
 
SCOUTING BOISE STATE: Boise State enters the weekend with a 6-0 record on the young season. The Broncos have not dropped a match, winning all six by identical, 7-0, scores. BSU will face Eastern Washington Friday at home before traveling to Pullman for Sunday's match. Individually, Zdena Safarova is ranked No. 110 while the Bronco doubles pair of Safarova and Maya Dutta are ranked No. 53 nationally. The Cougars lead the all-time series, 18-8, which includes winning the last seven matches.
 
SCOUTING SEATTLE: The Redhawks are early it their spring season, having gone 0-2 in the first two matches Against Oregon and Long Beach State.  Seattle will face Idaho Saturday before meeting the Cougars Sunday afternoon. WSU is 14-1 all-time against the Redhawks.
 
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 rebounded from a Friday loss at Cal Poly to post a 6-1 win over Fresno State in San Luis Obispo, Calif.  
 
NEXT UP: Following the Fresno State match, the Cougars remain on the road with a Feb. 14 matchup against Washington in Seattle.
 
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 Markov 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.