Utah Women's Tennis Opens Fall Action at Miami Fall Invite

Friday, September 20

Coral Gables, FL

All Day

University of Utah

Miami Fall Invite

Photo by: Steve C. Wilson

Utah Women's Tennis Opens Fall Action at Miami Fall Invite

9/18/2019 10:25 AM | Women's Tennis

Tattini/Hekking are ranked as the No. 55 doubles team in the Oracle/ITA preseason poll.

FIRST SERVE
The Utah women's tennis team will open the fall tournament schedule at the Miami Fall Invite this Friday through Sunday, Sept. 20-22. The three-day event will be held at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center in Coral Gables, Fla. The Utes will send senior Whitney Hekking, sophomores Emily Dush and Madison Tattini, along with sophomore transfer Madeline Lamoreaux to compete in the first fall event.

TOURNAMENT TALK
The tournament will include singles and doubles matches for Utah against competition from five different schools. Utah's student-athletes will compete in a field against players from Florida Atlantic, Florida Gulf Coast, Georgia State, LSU, and tournament host Miami.

Matches will begin on Friday at 8 a.m. ET with one round of doubles matches and two rounds of singles. Saturday's events will also begin at 8 a.m. ET with one round of both doubles and singles matches, while Sunday's final day of action begins at 9 a.m. ET with the final round of each. Live stats will be available here.

FIRST ROUND DRAWS
Doubles
Orange Flight - #55 Tattini/Hekking (Utah) vs. Sara Kelly/Julia Fisch (FGCU)
Green Flight – Lamoreaux/Dush (Utah) vs. Alba Retorillo (FGCU)/Luba Vasilyuk (LSU)

Singles
Orange Flight - Tattini vs. Damira Muminovic (G. State), Dush vs. Maya Ornberg (FGCU)
Green Flight – Hekking vs. Denisa Gheorghe (G. State), Lamoreaux vs. Harrison Caldwell (FAU)

SOLE SENIOR
On a team with seven underclassmen and just two upperclassmen, the Utes will look to their sole senior Whitney Hekking to take on the leadership role. The local Davis High School standout enters her senior season after contributing to the Utah women's tennis program from the day she arrived on campus. This past season, Hekking went 11-9 in singles play mostly competing at the No. 5 spot. On the doubles court, she held a 10-8 record in doubles as a member of the No. 2 duo in 2019. Hekking also has thrived in the classroom and is a two-time Pac-12 All-Academic second-team selection, as well as an ITA Scholar Athlete.

UTE RETURNERS
Along with Hekking, Utah returns five sophomores to the 2019-20 team with three Utes bringing back significant experience from their freshman seasons. Madison Tattini, the 2019 ITA Mountain Region Freshman of the Year, had a stellar first year as a Ute and competed at Utah's No. 2 singles and No. 1 doubles this past season. Emily Dush and Lindsay Hung also bring back valuable experience from their freshman seasons. Dush spent time on the No. 3 singles court, while Hung mostly competed at the No. 4 singles.

Utah also returns Anya Lamoreaux and Jasmine Rich who are looking to make an impact in their second year of the program. Lamoreaux picked up three wins on the No. 3 doubles court to highlight her freshman season, while Rich saw action during fall play and went on to win two matches at the Wildcat Invite.

NOTABLE NEWCOMERS
The Utes welcomed three new student-athletes to the team for the 2019-20 season. Madison McKay and Madeline Lamoreaux come to Utah as transfers, while Katya Hersh begins her collegiate career as the sole freshman on the roster. A four-star recruit out of high school, Hersh won three national double titles during her junior career and at the time of her commitment, was ranked No. 96 nationally.

Lamoreaux comes to Salt Lake City after spending her first year on the women's tennis team at Eastern Washington where she had a phenomenal freshman season and went on to be named the Big Sky Freshman of the Year. She competed at EWU's No. 1 singles and at the No. 1 doubles, holding an overall record of 14-8 and 15-5, respectively. Transferring from Point Loma, McKay enters her junior year of competition. The Pac-West All-Academic selection was a part of the Point Loma program that earned the highest ever ITA ranking and most wins in a season.

FAMILY REUNION
The Lamoreaux sisters, Anya and Madeline, are reunited this year after beginning their collegiate careers apart while Madeline competed at Eastern Washington her first season. The talented twin sisters were doubles partners in high school where the duo was able to tab two state championships in their freshman and sophomore seasons. The Mesa, Ariz. natives also had success in singles and were both four-star recruits prior to entering the collegiate scene.

2018-19 IN REVIEW
The Utes finished with a 13-11 overall record last season and a 3-7 slate during Pac-12 play. Last year's team was ranked No. 38 in the nation for three consecutive weeks during the 2019 season, while concluding the season at No. 44 nationally in the ITA's final poll and ranked second in the Mountain Region final poll.

Utah graduated its top singles player and Pac-12 All-Conference honorable mention member, Brianna Chisholm, who was a four-year letterwinner for the women's tennis team. Chisholm and Tattini paired as Utah's top doubles team and ranked No. 49 in the nation. Utah earned a pair of ITA awards led by Tattini's ITA Rookie of the Year selection, as well as the team earning the ITA Community Service award. The Utes also tabbed three Pac-12 All-Academic and five ITA Scholar-Athlete selections.

UP NEXT
The Utah women's tennis team will head to the San Diego State Fall Classic to compete in the three-day event. The tournament will be held Friday through Sunday, Sept. 27-29, at the Aztec Tennis Center in San Diego, Calif.