Salt Lake City-- University of Utah women's tennis was selected as one of eight women's teams to compete in the 69th Blue Gray National Tennis Classic, which is widely recognized as one of the top tennis events in the country. Matches will be played Feb. 24-25 at Lagoon Park and O'Connor Tennis Center in Montgomery, Ala. The Utes join Alabama, Auburn, Denver, Texas, Texas Tech, Tulane, and Tulsa in the tournament.
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The Utes will top seed No. 7 Texas Tech in the first round at 12:30 p.m. at Lagoon Park and will take on Alabama or Tulsa depending on the outcome of the first round.
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The Utes head to Alabama coming off of two weekend victories defeating New Mexico, 5-2 on Feb. 17 and Wisconsin, 4-0 on Feb. 19. Against New Mexico,
Taylor Calton and
Jena Cheng recorded a solid doubles win over Rachana Bhat and Andrea LeBlanc, 6-2, while
Alexia Petrovic and
Whitney Turley defeated Cassie Chung and Diana Wong, 6-1.Margo Pletcher and Brianna  Turley each came back to secure three-set singles wins, as Pletcher defeated Ludivine Burguiere, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, and Turley defeated Andrea LeBlanc, 7-6, 3-6, 7-6. Against Wisconsin, the Utes clinched the doubles point before Pletcher,  Petrovic, and Calton all recorded victories by a score of 6-1, 6-1 to secure the dual-match win.
Following the Blue Gray tournament, the Utes travel to face in-state rival BYU in Provo on March 3 at 12 p.m. The Utes begin Pac-12 play at Arizona State on March 10 at 1:30 p.m. and at Arizona on March 11 at Noon They will return to the Eccles Tennis Center on March 13 to face North Carolina State at 5 p.m.