Upcoming Event: Women's Tennis at Santa Barbara on January 18, 2026 at Noon (MT)
Noon (MT)
Women's Tennis
at Santa Barbara
The University of Utah Athletics
Saturday, January 11
Salt Lake City, UT
10:00 AM
University of Utah
vs
Southern Utah
Photo by: Steve C. Wilson
Women's Tennis Set to Host Southern Utah to Open 2020 Season
1/8/2020 12:12 PM | Women's Tennis
Utes to open season with a doubleheader on Saturday.
FIRST SERVE
Utah women's tennis is set for the 2020 season opener against Southern Utah this Saturday, Jan. 11 in a doubleheader against the Thunderbirds. The first match will begin at 10 a.m. at the George S. Eccles Tennis Center in Salt Lake City. The Utes will then wrap up the first day of the season with the second match slated to begin at 4 p.m. A live stream of the matches can be found here, along with a recap of the day's action being available on UtahUtes.com after the conclusion of play.
IN THE RANKINGS
After a phenomenal fall season, Utah's top doubles team of sophomore Madison Tattini and senior Whitney Hekking will enter spring action ranked as the No. 24-ranked duo in the nation. Tattini and Hekking fell at No. 24 in the final ITA poll of the fall after posting an 8-2 record together. The Ute duo won the doubles title at the UNLV Invitational in November, while also reaching the semifinal round of the main draw at the ITA Mountain Region Championships after picking up four straight wins.
FLASHBACK TO FALL
Utah competed in a total of five tournaments in the fall, beginning with the Miami Fall Invite. Sophomore Madeline Lamoreaux had a stellar outing at the Miami Fall Invite, going undefeated in her first matches as a Ute and tallying three singles wins to highlight her debut. A new group of Utes then competed in the SDSU Fall Classic that was highlighted by sophomore Lindsay Hung advancing to the championship match of the 'Red' bracket. Freshman Katya Hersh picked up her first wins as a Ute while at the SDSU Classic.
At the ITA Mountain Regional, the Utes swept competition on the first day of action with four singles wins and two doubles wins. The second day was led by an upset win over the second seed in the singles main draw by Madeline Lamoreaux, with both her and Tattini advancing to the quarterfinal round. Tattini would also pick up another win and advance to the semifinal round before falling just short of a championship match appearance.
Following the Kentucky Invite, where the Utes got in a lot of matches and gained experience against many teams, Utah then attended the UNLV Invite to close out the fall season. Anya Lamoreaux and Katya Hersh knocked off the nation's 17th-ranked doubles team on the first day of action to highlight the event. A successful doubles tournament for Utah, Hersh and Lamoreaux matched up against teammates Tattini and Hekking for the championship match of flight one doubles with Tattini and Hekking coming out on top with a score of 8-2 to take the doubles title at the UNLV Invitational.
SCOUTING SUU
The Southern Utah University women's tennis team is coming off of a 13-11 overall record from the 2018-19 season. Going 5-5 in conference play, the Thunderbirds advanced to the semifinal round of the Big Sky Conference Championship Tournament and fell to Northern Arizona, 0-4.
Southern Utah has five returning players this season from last year's roster and are led by Jessica Stefan. Stefan earned first-team All-Big Sky honors, as she went 18-4 overall in singles, with a 9-1 record in conference play.
Last season, Utah and Southern Utah faced off early in the season and the Utes came away with a clean sweep over SUU, with only one set being lost to the Thunderbirds in the match.
UNDER NEW DIRECTION
Head coach Ric Mortera, who was named the Utah women's tennis head coach in July of 2019, will begin his first season with the Utes on Saturday. Mortera comes to the University of Utah after a year as Fresno State's women's tennis head coach, where he saw the Bulldogs win nine dual matches with three student-athletes earning All-Mountain West honors. Previous to Fresno State, Mortera spent three seasons at Texas Tech as an associate head coach and helped coach the Lady Raiders to a 73-17 record over the three-year span.
In August of 2019, Mortera announced the addition of Janet Koch to help lead the Utes as the assistant coach. Koch comes to Utah following an illustrious four-year career at the University of Kansas, where she was an ITA All-American and All-Big 12 selection. Koch was at one point a member of the No. 1-ranked doubles team in the nation and finished the 2019 as the No. 5-ranked duo in the nation. Koch also helped lead Kansas to its first-ever Big 12 title, as well as appearances in the NCAA Tournament all four years she was a Jayhawk.
Along with Koch, Mortera will be assisted by volunteer assistant coach, Slim Hamza. Hamza was a standout for the Utah men's tennis team from 2012-15, and was a three-time Pac-12 All-Conference honoree. Hamza ranked as high as No. 37 in the ITA rankings and was at one point ranked No. 69 in the ITF World Rankings.
UP NEXT
The Utah women's tennis team will continue action next week for the first road matches, traveling to take on Montana in Missoula, Mont. The Utes will play two matches against the Grizzlies on Friday, Jan. 17. The first match is set to start at 9 a.m. MT, followed by the second match to end the day at 3 p.m. MT.
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