Posted: Apr 04, 2018
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Santa Clara women's tennis player Maddie Pothoff is ranked No. 102 in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association singles rankings, which came out on Tuesday. Pothoff is the first Bronco player to be ranked since Katie Le in 2014 when Le finished No. 40 in the final rankings.
"It's a really great honor for Maddie. Outside of Pepperdine, Maddie and (Veronica Miroshnichenko) from LMU are the only players ranked from the WCC. I'm glad she's having success here at Santa Clara. I'm proud of her and proud of the program," said Broncos head coach Ben Cabell.
The sophomore transfer from Alabama is 10-2 in the dual season and had won 10 consecutive singles matches before losing in three sets to Gonzaga's Sophie Whittle last Saturday on court one. Nine of her 10 wins have come on court two but moved up to the No. 1 spot as Madison Clarke, who slots in at No. 1 singles, was forced to retire last Friday.
Pothoff and the Broncos (7-7, 2-2) travel to Utah to play a pair of road matches this week. On Friday, Santa Clara will face Weber State at 10 a.m. PT in a non-conference match before playing WCC foe BYU on Saturday at 11 a.m. PT.
"The state of Utah is always a tough place to play because of the altitude so we have to make some adjustments. The biggest adjustment will be the high altitude balls which have less pressure," said Cabell. "The weather is also going to play a role if we have to play indoors or not. But we just have to deal with it. The match with Weber State will give us a good preparation going against BYU."
Weber State (8-8) last played on March 28, losing 4-3 against Montana capping a stretch of playing four matches in a six day span.
BYU (10-5, 3-1 WCC) sits third in the WCC standings trailing 4-0 Gonzaga and Pepperdine who are 3-0. The Cougars play a mid-week match at Utah on Wednesday before hosting Santa Clara.