Posted: Jan 15, 2020
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – For the second straight year, Santa Clara women's tennis opens its spring season at the Cal State Fullerton Invite. The hidden dual format invitational will run from Friday to Sunday with singles and doubles play each day.
Five schools will participate including Grand Canyon, Pacific, San José State, Santa Clara and host, Cal State Fullerton.
"In hidden dual format, the matches count towards the individual records but not the team results so it's nice for us to get a couple of matches under our belts before starting the true dual match competition. I like it and the team likes it," said Broncos head coach Ben Cabell. "The competition will help us solidify our lineup and our doubles team for the year."
This spring, the Broncos field a 10 player squad with eight returnees, led by senior Maddie Pothoff who was named preseason All-WCC. Freshman Giulia Hayer joined the program as a mid-year enrollee to add depth to an experience squad comprised of three seniors (Pothoff, Madison Clarke and Caitlyn Frankel), three juniors (Nadine Del Carmen, Elvena Gevargiz and Katya Tabachnik), two sophomores (Lindsey Pesqueira and Jamie Schroer) and two freshmen (Hayer and Lindsay Lynch).
"Giulia is a great addition to the team and also having Madison back and healthy," said Cabell of the newcomer and the returning senior who redshirted last season due to an injury. "Those two things make a big difference and I think we're going to see it in both doubles and our depth, so I am excited."
Pothoff entered the 2019-20 season ranked No. 76 in singles and No. 58 in doubles along with Gevargiz in the Oracle/ITA preseason national rankings. The duo posted a 5-3 doubles record in the fall.
Clarke is a two-time All-West Coast Conference selection in both singles and doubles during her sophomore and junior campaigns before being redshirted last season.
In the fall, Del Carmen had six singles wins and Frankel recorded eight doubles wins to top the team.
