THIS WEEK: The No. 45 Washington State Tennis team (9-3) heads to Texas this week for a pair of matches at No. 15 Baylor and No. 53 Texas Christian. The week begins Friday, Feb. 21 when the Cougars visit Waco, Texas to face Baylor in a 10 a.m. PT matchup at the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center. The following day, the Cougars head to Fort Worth to face TCU in an 11 a.m. PT contest at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center.
 
FOLLOW LIVE: For this weekend, a stream of the Baylor match can be found HERE, while live stats will be HERE
The TCU match will have live stats HERE.
 
SCOUTING BAYLOR: Baylor enters Friday's match boasting an 8-1 record and No. 15 national ranking. The Bears lone loss came at the hands of No. 12 Texas, a 4-3 setback. Baylor is led by freshman Na dong, who is ranked No. 80 nationally while the doubles team of Liubov Kostenko and Cristina Tiglea is ranked No. 7. Baylor holds the all-time series edge, 3-1, with WSU's lone win coming in 2019. The bears have won the past two meetings.
 
SCOUTING TCU: TCU begins the week with a 3-2 recording heading into Thursday's home match against No. 11 Texas. The Horned Frogs have wins over Denver, Rice and Brown, with both losses coming against nationally-ranked Texas A&M (#2) and UC Santa Barbara (#24). TCU's doubles team of Isabel Pascual and Jade Otway are ranked No. 24 nationally. The Horned Frogs captured the only meting in the series, a 6-3 victory in Hawaii during the 1996 season.
 
COUGARS ENTER NATIONAL RANKINGS: In the lates ITA rankings, released Feb. 20, WSU entered the rankings at No. 45, their highest ranking since 2022, Head Coach Raquel Atawo's first year at WSU. The Cougars' No. 1 doubles team of Eva Alvarez Sande and Maxine Murphy entered the rankings for the first time this season at No. 88.
 
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 swept a doubleheader last Sunday, defeating Boise State 6-1 and Seattle 4-0.
 
NEXT UP: Following the two matches in Texas, the Cougars wont compete again until hosting Portland State March 7 in Pullman.
 
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.