The Wichita State women's team will be the No. 10 seed in this week's American Athletic Conference Championship at the University of Tulsa's Michael D. Case Tennis Center.
 
The Shockers (8-12) open at 9 a.m. CT Wednesday against No. 7 seed Cincinnati (15-6). The winner plays another 9 a.m. match Thursday against No. 2 seed SMU (14-8).
 
Tournament seeding is based the ITA's computerized ranking data. UCF, which was No. 18 in the most-recent rankings, drew the top seed in the 11-team bracket ahead of SMU (43^rd), No. 3 seed Tulsa (48^th) and No. 4 seed Memphis (56^th).
 
Semifinals are slated for Friday with the championship on Saturday. The latter airs on ESPN+. The winner of the tournament earns The American's automatic berth in next month's NCAA Division I Women's Tennis Team Championship.
 
Fans can track the match via live scoring and video stream. For links, as well as brackets, ticket info and more, visit TheAmerican.org/wtennis. For additional coverage, follow @GoShockersWTEN and @American_Tenn on Twitter.
 

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WSU is 2-1 all-time against Cincinnati but suffered a 4-3 setback against the Bearcats last month in Wichita. The Shockers won each of the top-3 singles battles but lost the war due to an incomplete lineup.
 
With mounting injuries, WSU has played shorthanded in each of its last six duals, resulting in default losses at No. 3 doubles and No. 6 singles.
 
The Shockers have been out-manned but not necessarily out-played. They're 2-5 overall this year when playing shorthanded, but have posted winning singles (21-14) and doubles (6-5) records in those duals.
 
WSU takes a two-match winning streak into the postseason after 6-1 victories over Emporia State and Kansas City on Apr. 6 and 10.
 
Natsumi Kurahashi (18-10) has an 8-7 mark at No. 1 singles and has won six of her last nine decisions.
 
LingWei Kong has won four of her last six singles matches since moving back to the No. 2 spot in the lineup.
 
Jessie Zheng (16-9) has been excellent in April, winning all three of her No. 3 singles matches in straight sets while posting a perfect 3-0 mark at No. 1 doubles.
 
In the regular season finale at Kansas City, Harriet Hamilton (20-8) became the first Shocker in five years to record 20 singles victories in a season. She's 12-6 in duals while splitting time between Nos. 4-6 in the lineup.
 
True freshman Cara Whitaker (17-11) ended the regular season with back-to-back wins at No. 5 singles.
 
WSU has used 16 different doubles tandems this school year. The duo of Kong and Zheng have clicked since reuniting on April 1, winning all three of their matches at No. 1. They're 4-0 overall together.
 
WSU has won 19 conference tournament events in its history, most recently in 2017 when it finished off a run of nine-straight Missouri Valley Conference crowns.
 
WSU advanced the semifinals in its 2018 American debut but has fallen in each of the last two quarterfinals. The Shockers are in search of their first AAC tournament win since 2019 when they defeated UConn in the first round. They're 2-3 all-time in this event.
 

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