Tennis earns first postseason berth in program history

BOONE, NC For the first time in program history, App State is headed to the women’s tennis postseason.

The head coach Ashleigh Antal and the Mountaineers have accepted an invitation to the inaugural Universal Tennis National Invitational Tennis Championship (NIT Championship), which will be held in Peachtree City, Georgia from 17-20. May.

“We are honored to receive a bid for the inaugural event in college tennis,” Antal said. “It’s a huge deal to be able to play postseason tennis and promote our sport in this way. This is a special group that has competed hard all year, so I’m incredibly excited to get back out there on the court with them one more time.”

App State will face Wyoming in the opening round on May 17 in a regular doubleheader starting at 10 a.m. All games, both men’s and women’s, will be streamed on Amazon Prime and available to regular Prime subscribers at no additional cost. Information about the App State draw for the tournament will be announced this week.

Other teams in the women’s field include Cal Poly, Colorado, CSUN, Stetson, TCU, UC San Diego and Wyoming.

App State has a 13-8 record this spring after advancing to the quarterfinals of the Sun Belt Tournament last week at the same Peachtree City Tennis Center as the upcoming NIT. The Mountaineers finished tied for third in the Sun Belt regular season at 8-3, their best league finish since 2019 and second best since joining the Sun Belt in 2014.

Played singles most of season, freshman Savannah Dada-Mascoll earned first-team All-Sun Belt honors and has a team-best 13-3 record in dual meets. In place No. 1 is a parent Helena Jansenwho has compiled a 10-8 mark against each of the Mountaineers’ opponents’ top players. Erika Dodridge (7-2), Virginia Poggi (10-3) and The Ryan-Bovey bike (5-4) also has winning singles records this season.

App State won singles points in both of its Sun Belt Tournament matches and looks to carry that momentum into the NIT as well.

Universal Tennis announced the tournament in March as evidence of the organization’s support for college tennis, which generates millions in revenue for college programs each year and has streamed more than 20,000 matches featuring more than 1,300 college players worldwide.

The announcement of the NIT Championship follows the launch of the Universal Tennis Collegiate Alliance (“UTCA”), which was created to support the future of all collegiate programs in the United States. The UTCA Executive Committee voted unanimously to initiate the NIT Championship.