Women’s Tennis Year in Review

NEW ORLEANS – The Tulane women's tennis team recorded one of the best turnarounds in all of NCAA Division I, going from 8-14 a year ago to producing a 22-7 record this spring, marking the first 20-win season in the post-Katrina era. The Green Wave also achieved post-Katrina firsts in two different categories: reaching a national ranking as high as No. 36 and producing the program's first top-30 ranked win via 4-3 upset over No. 28 LSU.

The Green Wave also proved dominant at home, tallying a 13-2 mark at the City Park Pepsi Tennis Center. In addition, the Wave shown vast improvement in doubles, claiming the early 1-0 advantage in 22-of-29 occasions.

The Olive and Blue jumped out of the gates by winning 11 of its first 13 matches, which included the first win over the LSU Tigers since 2005. However, the Wave hit a road block next when they suffered losses to No. 8 Auburn and No. 47 Texas.

Next, the Wave built a five-match win streak and boasted a 9-0 record at home when they welcomed ULM to City Park. However, on March 18, Tulane's unblemished mark at home came to an end when the Warhawks surprised the Green Wave with a 4-3 upset.

Tulane bounced back with yet another five-match win streak, capped by a 5-2 victory over UConn at home, which completed a 4-0 sweep over conference opposition during the regular season.

Heading into the month of April the Green Wave were still in NCAA Tournament discussion, hovering around a No. 43 national ranking. However, Troy had other plans when they invaded City Park in the final weekend of the regular season and stormed out with a 4-3 win.

Next, the Olive and Blue looked to regroup and make a run at the American Athletic Conference Championships, where they were tabbed with the No. 2 seed in the tournament. Yet, the Green Wave ran into a very hot South Florida team in the opening round, as the Bulls not only advanced via a 4-1 victory, but also went on to win the conference title.

Tulane's two freshmen in Christina Sisti (18-6) and Ivone Alvaro (18-5) each produced 18 dual wins this spring, with the latter ending the season on an 11-match win streak. Sisti clinched the win over LSU and co-led the team in doubles with 18 dual wins.

Meanwhile, Alvaro was named an American Athletic All-Conference selection along with The American's Co-Freshman of the Year alongside Houston's Tsveta Dimitrova. Furthermore, the Portugal native went an impressive 17-3 in doubles.

Continuing with the youth movement was sophomore Elena Muller, who led the Wave in victories. In fact, Muller went from 9-8 as a freshman to 19-3 this season. The First-Team All-Louisiana selection was equally as impressive in doubles, where she not only knocked off two ranked pairs in No. 43 Foster/Valle Costa of LSU and No. 35 Granic/Wagland of Texas, but also achieved her first career doubles ranking (No. 76).

Lastly, Sade Atkinson produced quite the improvement, barely cracking the lineup as a sophomore to being named an All-Conference selection as junior. Atkinson recorded a 16-8 record in singles, primarily playing the No. 2-3 spots, and co-led the team in doubles with an 18-5 mark. Atkinson also picked up her first career ranked win with a three-set victory over No. 51 Natalie Suk of Ole Miss and reached the Round of 16 at the ITA Southern Regional.

All-in-all, the Green Wave's youth in its lineup really shone bright in 2017. Add in the fact that next year Tulane returns every position in its lineup outside its No. 1 in graduating senior Kyla Klier, and the future certainly seems even brighter.

Players Mentioned

Ivone Alvaro

Sade Atkinson

Kyla Klier

Elena Muller

Christina Sisti

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