(May 6, 2025) THIS WEEK: The No. 57-ranked Washington State Tennis team (17-8 overall) heads to the 2025 UTR Sports National Invitational Tournament to face Northern Illinois May 7-9, at the Rome Tennis Center in Rome, Ga. The eight-team NIT marks the first postseason appearance for Cougar Tennis since reaching the first round of the 2019 NCAA Championships in Stillwater, Okla. WSU and Northern Illinois will face off Wednesday beginning at Noon PT
 
2025 NATIONAL INVITATIONAL TOURNAMENT: The 2025 edition of the UTR Sports National Invitational Tournament marks the third annual postseason event and features eight women's teams in the single-elimination bracket. Last week, the women's field was announced and in addition to Washington State, teams selected include UNC Charlotte, Appalachian State, Middle Tennessee State, North Alabama, North Texas, Northern Illinois, and Saint Mary's College of California. The winner of the Cougars-Northern Illinois match will advance to Thursday's semifinal and face the winner of Appalachian State-North Texas match. Last season, Tulsa defeated Colorado 4-2 in the championship match.
 
FOLLOW LIVE: Live scoring and video for the National Invitational Tournament can be found at IonCourt (scoring) and playsight.com (video).
 
WSU IN POSTSEASON: The 2025 NIT marks the eighth postseason appearance for Cougar Tennis, the last coming at the 2019 NCAA Championships where WSU fell 4-3 to Miami in Stillwater, Okla. The Cougars also made NCAA postseason appearances in 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2008 and 2012.
 
SCOUTING NORTHERN ILLINOIS: Northern Illinois enters the NIT with a 22-7 record, having won nine of its last 12 matches. The Huskies are playing in a national post-season tournament for the first time in school history. Also, the 22 victories broke the 40-year-old school record for dual match wins. The matchup against WSU marks the second meeting all-time, with NIU capturing a 6-3 win over the Cougars during the 1989 season.
 
COUGARS IN NATIONAL RANKINGS: In the latest ITA rankings, released May 1, WSU sits at No. 57 after reaching a season-high of No. 45 in late February. The Cougars' No. 1 doubles team of Eva Alvarez Sande and Maxine Murphy, who entered the rankings for the first time this season in late February at No. 88, skyrocketed up the charts to No. 34 nationally and enter this week at No. 61.
 
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.
  
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 and Yura Nakagawa, and freshmen Chisato Kanemaki and Martina Puvill.
 
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.