After making the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championships this spring, Texas women’s tennis is poised to take another crack at adding another national championship to their trophy room with the help of new players added to the squad.
With nine out of the 12 players returning from last year’s team, Texas added two more players to buff the current roster: freshman Maddy MacNeille from Delray Beach, Florida and graduate student Tanya Sasnouskaya, who spent four years playing for Old Dominion University.
These new additions hope to improve the team’s overall record, as UT’s women’s tennis went 24-5 overall and 8-1 in conference play before losing to eventual national champions North Carolina in the NCAA Championships quarterfinals and falling short of the three-peat.
MacNeille, a three-star recruit coming out of high school, has a current Universal Tennis Rating of 8. Despite graduating from high school in 2022, she took some time off shortly after and is starting her college career this fall.
Sasnouskaya will add more veteran experience to the team as she went undefeated in Sun Belt Conference play last year, earning Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year and First-Team All-Conference honors in her final year at Old Dominion, all the while maintaining a current UTR rating of 10.68.
She finished her 2022-23 season with a singles record of 22-6, winning 11 out of her last 12 matches to make it all the way to the second round of the NCAA Singles Championship, ending the year ranked 25th in singles.
Her doubles record is also an impressive one, going overall 20-8 and winning the last 10 of her 11 matches with her partner Sofia Johnson to advance to the second round of the NCAA Championships and obtain a 26th overall ranking.
With a string of invitationals already underneath the team’s belt, women’s tennis swept the singles and doubles titles at the River Oaks Invitational that ran Sept. 15-17 in Houston. Senior Malaika Rapolu won the singles championship while pairing up with redshirt sophomore Vivian Ovrootsky to capture the doubles title. Meanwhile, MacNeille competed and won her first singles match of the season.
The team also competed at two tournaments, the USTA Intercollegiate Championships in San Diego, California and the Wolfpack Invitational in Cary, North Carolina, both taking place Sept. 21-24. Texas was able to nab wins throughout both tournaments.
Sasnouskaya defeated two top-30 players in singles, becoming a finalist in the A-1 North draw. Sophomore Nicole Rivkin made the singles A-2 North draw finals and singles A-2 West-Northwest compass draw. Texas also had success in the USTA Intercollegiate Championships, with Ovrootsky reaching the semifinals of the tournament.
After a string of invitationals later this fall and into the spring, Texas begins Big 12 play on March 3 against Oklahoma, looking to continue its conference dominance from last year as a stepping stone to continue its winning ways at the NCAA Championships this upcoming spring.
