Texas women’s tennis will head to North Carolina to kick off its 2025-26 season at the ITA All-American Championships on Saturday.
The first two months of play will take place on the road with 13 ITA and USTA tournaments across California, North Carolina, Georgia, Oklahoma and Texas. These tournaments are in preparation for the NCAA Individual Championships, which will be hosted Nov. 18-23 in Lake Nona, Florida.
For their spring semester debut, the Longhorns will host their first match at home on Jan. 18 against Pepperdine. Following the home match, Texas will face five opponents and a tournament before returning to Southeastern Conference play on Feb. 22 against Texas A&M.
Coming off the 2024-25 season with an 18-11 record, the Longhorns took a small dip in their overall record from their previous seasons. However, they finished with a 9–6 conference record in their first season in the SEC and reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament.
The Longhorns swept 4-0 in both of their first and second round matches of the tournament, but fell short in the super regionals to No. 3 Michigan in a 4-3 loss.
Regarding offseason moves, Texas added two new additions to the coaching staff. First, assistant coach Jeff Nevolo, the former head coach at SMU, joined the Longhorns’ tennis coaching staff this month.
“Coaching at Texas has always been a dream of mine, and I’m so grateful to be a part of the staff,” Nevolo said. “Our team is motivated to build on the legacy of Texas women’s tennis, and I look forward to the journey ahead.”
The second addition is Bianca Turati, former Missouri head coach and Texas women’s tennis All-American, who announced her return to the Forty Acres as an associate head coach in mid-July.
“Moving back to Austin, where I spent four incredible years of my life as a student-athlete, along with now working with my former college coach, Howard Joffe, is simply a dream come true,” Turati said.
While the program lost graduating senior Sabina Zeynalova, as well as five other players to the transfer portal, the Longhorns will see six returners this season, such as redshirt freshmen Audrey Deatherage and Lucy Schmeil, as well as sophomores Ariana Anazagasty-Pursoo, Salma Drugdova, Carmen Herea and Eszter Meri.
Alongside those returners are two fresh faces — freshmen Christasha McNeil and Mathlide Ngijol-Carré. McNeil won nine junior singles titles in her career and has reached three quarterfinals of pro tournaments in the last two years.
Texas has a lot to prove with its new additions to the roster and coaching staff. With experienced mentors and highly ranked recruits, there is hope that the team can improve its overall record and find success in further rounds during NCAA Tournament play.
