WICHITA, Kan. – The Wichita State women's tennis team opens fall play in Columbia, Mo., at the seventh annual Mizzou Invite beginning Friday, Sept. 14. at the Mizzou Tennis Complex.
 
MIZZOU INVITE
Where? – Columbia, Mo. (Mizzou Tennis Complex)
When? – Sept. 14-16 (All Day)
Format – No dual match format. Individual singles players and doubles tandems match up against other teams in Invite.
Participating Schools - Missouri, Wichita State, Memphis and Denver
 
THE FIELD
Missouri
2017-18 Record (13-17)
Returners - 6
Denver
2017-18 Record (19-5) Summit League Tournament Champions, NCAA First Round vs. Kansas (L, 3-4)
Returners -5
Memphis
2017-18 Record (16-8)
Returners - 7

SCHEDULE
Friday, September 14   LIVE STATS
Singles:  Denver vs Wichita State 10 a.m.
Doubles:  Memphis vs Denver; Mizzou vs Wichita State 2 p.m.
Singles:  Missouri  vs Memphis 3:30 p.m.

Saturday, September 15   LIVE STATS
Doubles:  Memphis vs Mizzou; Wichita State vs Denver 10 a.m.
Singles:  Mizzou vs Denver 11:30 a.m.
Singles:  Wichita State vs Memphis 2 p.m. (Or whenever match is complete)

Sunday, September 16   LIVE STATS
Doubles:  Mizzou vs Denver; Wichita State vs Memphis 9:30am
Singles:  Denver vs Memphis 11am
Singles:  Mizzou vs Wichita State 2pm (Or whenever match is complete)

2017-18 OVERVIEW
Head Coach Colin Foster - in his ninth season with the Shockers - added his name to the record books, leading the Shockers to their first NCAA Team Championship victory since 2007. The victory marked only the second time a Wichita State team has advanced past the first round of the NCAA Tournament, and the first postseason win for Foster. Led by standout sophomore Fatima Bizhukova and seniors Gabriela Porubin and Giulia Guidetti, the Shockers ended the season with an 18-9 record and ranked No. 32 in the ITA/Oracle Final National Rankings after reaching the postseason for the 10th-straight season. After a dominant tenure in the Missouri Valley Conference winning 11 conference tournament championships, the Shockers faced 12 ranked opponents and collected four wins over ranked opponents in their first year in the highly regarded American Athletic Conference.
 
FROM HEAD COACH COLIN FOSTER
"On the women's side, our inaugural season in the American Athletic Conference was quite memorable. With the move to a stronger conference, our streak of nine-consecutive conference championships came to an end at the hands of Tulsa in the American Athletic Conference semifinals, but our team was in the top-25 for a good part of the season. Wins over Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma and Kansas State highlighted a spring schedule that saw us earn an at-large berth in the NCAA Championship."
 
2018-19 SHOCKER SQUAD
WSU welcomes back six players from last season, including All-American Athletic Conference selections Fatima Bizhukova and Sandra Honigova. Juniors Ting-Ya Hsu, Marta Bellucco, and Sarvinoz Saidhujaeva join sophomore Alexandra Lazarova on the 2018-19 team. Esther Thebault, a native of Rennes, France, is the lone newcomer for the Shockers. Thebault transfers in from the University of Rouen and 'Rennes 2' in France.
 
2017-18 BY THE NUMBERS (Returners)
Singles                                     Overall             Dual                vs. Nationally Ranked
Fatima Bizhukova (Jr.)              19-14               12-8                 5-6
Sandra Honigova (Sr.)               16-5                 16-5                 2-2
Marta Bellucco (Jr.)                    15-14               9-11                 0-1
Sarvinoz Saidhujaeva (Jr.)         12-14               7-11                 0-0
Alexandra Lazarova (So.)           10-10               4-4                   0-0
Ting-Ya Hsu  (Jr.)                         5-7                   0-0                   0-0
 
PRESEASON RANKINGS
Three Shockers received rankings in the ITA/Oracle Preseason Rankings released on Sept. 11. Bizhukova and Bellucco, who finished last seaso with a No. 24 ranking, nearly snuck in the top-10 with a ranking of 14. The ranking is the highest for a Shocker duo since weekly rankings became available in 1999-00. The pair collected two huge victories in the NCAA First and Second Rounds over Syracuse (No. 8) and Ole Miss (No. 5). Bizhukova ended last season ranked No. 57, and comes into the fall with a No. 36 ranking, the highest for a Shocker since 2009-10. Honigova snuck inside the top-100 with a No. 94 ranking. The senior finished last season with a team-best 16 dual match victories.
 
NEXT UP
Following the Mizzou Invite, Fatima Bizhukova will be the lone Shocker traveling to the ITA/Oracle Masters in Malibu, Calif., from Sept. 20-23. The Masters features a 32-player singles field, with invitations to one man and one woman from each Division I Conference. The tournament will take place at the Malibu Racquet Club and Pepperdine University.