ITA Kickoff Weekend Home | Sunday Live Stats vs. Texas A&M | Sunday Live Video

---

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The Wichita State women's tennis team advanced to the championship round of its ITA Kickoff Weekend pod with a 4-1 win over No. 61 Minnesota, Saturday afternoon at Texas A&M's Mitchell Tennis Center.
 
WSU (4-0 and ranked 37th in the latest Oracle/ITA Division I Rankings) will face the hosts, No. 10 Texas A&M, at Noon CT on Sunday. The winner advances to next month's ITA National Women's Team Indoor Championship in Madison, Wisc.
 
Minnesota (2-1) pulled out a pair of close doubles matches to claim the early lead. After the teams had split the first two tiers, the Gopher team of Julia Courter and Caroline Ryba nipped Giulia Guidetti and Luca Pump in a tiebreaker, 7-6(3) to seal the doubles point.
 
WSU overcame the deficit by running off four-consecutives singles wins at Nos. 3-6, all in straight-sets.
 
Rebecca Pedrazzi, the reigning MVC Player of the Week, improved to 3-0 in singles this spring (9-5 overall) with another quick 6-1, 6-1 triumph at the No. 3 position.
 
"We responded well after dropping the doubles point," WSU head coach, Colin Foster said. "Becky [Pedrazzi] continues to play at a high level. Her getting on the board quickly put the brakes on their momentum."
 
At No. 6 singles, Guidetti upped her record to 17-4 and picked up her eighth-consecutive win, 6-0, 6-3, to give the Shockers a 2-1 lead in the dual.
 
Aleks Trifunovic followed at No. 5 with a swift 6-3, 6-1 win of her own.
 
Abby Stevens worked overtime in a second-set tiebreaker to emerge with a 6-4, 7-6(6) win to bring the dual to a close.
 
"Certainly to win at courts 3-6 shows off our depth, but Julia [Schiller] and Gaby [Porubin] deserve credit, as well, for playing well against strong opponents," Foster said. "We discussed a few areas on which we'll need to improve in order beat a top-10 team, but I'm confident in this group and know that they will embrace the challenge."