Alabama
Jackson State University
Alabama Women’s Tennis Kicks Off Spring Season Hosting Jackson State
1/12/2018 11:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
The Crimson Tide will face the Lady Tigers in a doubleheader, with matches starting at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Alabama women's tennis team will open up the spring season hosting a doubleheader with Jackson State on Saturday, January 13 at the Roberta Alison Baumgardner Tennis Facility. The first match will begin at 11 a.m. CT and the second is set for 4 p.m. CT.
SERVING UP 2018
Alabama opens the spring season after a successful fall slate, where the Crimson Tide competed in three tournaments, including the 30th Annual Roberta Alison Fall Classic at the end of October.
Alabama returns three letterwinners and welcomes five newcomers, including four transfers, to 2018.
Andie Daniell comes back to the Capstone as the Tide's top player, ranking at No. 106 in the latest ITA rankings.
Daniell opened the fall season ranked at No. 37 on the ITA preseason list and finished fall play, 9-2, defeating two ranked opponents (No. 85 Madison Westby, Southern California, and No. 56 Eden Richardson, LSU), while reaching the semifinal round of the 2017 ITA Southern Regional Championships.
Alabama tennis will use PlaySight, a live streaming technology, which provides the ability to live stream in high definition and record/store practice and match sessions to the indoor and outdoor tennis facilities.
MARKETING PROMOTIONS
Saturday's match is marked Big Al's Art Day, which will showcase beautiful artwork of Big Al created Rock Quarry Elementary School students. Also, there will be an autograph signing after the first match, as well as a bounce house for kids and free pizza for the first 100 fans.
ABOUT THE OPPONENT - JACKSON STATE
Saturday's doubleheader will mark the second and third meeting between the Crimson Tide and the Lady Tigers. The two squads first met in the first round of the 2014 NCAA Women's Tennis Championships, and the Crimson Tide swept the Lady Tigers, 4-0, to move on to the next round.
Jackson State finished second in the SWAC in the spring of 2017 and wrapped up fall play with a second-place finish at the 2017 HBCU National Tennis Championships fall tournament.
Jackson State returns SWAC Women's Tennis Player of the Year, SWAC Women's Tennis All-Around Tennis Team and first team All-SWAC honoree Tyler Smith to 2018. In the fall, Smith participated in the Oracle ITA Master tournament in California.
2017 REVIEW
Last season, the Crimson Tide was ranked in the ITA polls for 11 straight weeks (Feb. 28-May 24) and held its highest ranking at No. 33 on April 11 after the team defeated in-state rival No. 12 Auburn, 4-3. In the final ITA rankings, the Tide landed at No. 43. The squad also topped two other top-40 teams including No. 40 Tulsa (Feb. 24) and No. 13 Kentucky (March 24).
Former Crimson Tide tandem of Maddie Pothoff and Erin Routliffe highlighted the 2017 campaign, finishing as the runner-up at the NCAA Doubles Championship, which marked the third time in the last four year a Tide pairing made the NCAA double championship The tandem ended the year as the second best team in the nation and registered four victories against ranked opponents in the 2017 NCAA Tournament. The most notable win the pair had on the year was in a 7-6 (4) decision against Kentucky's No. 4-ranked doubles team which helped the Tide edge the Wildcats for the 14th time in school history. Both Routliffe and Pothoff earned All-America honors and was named to the ITA Collegiate All-Star Team, while Pothoff also earned First Team All-SEC honors.
COMING UP
Alabama will host another pair of matches Sunday, Jan. 21 at the Roberta Alison Baumgardner Tennis Facility. The Crimson Tide will play against Western Kentucky at 10 a.m. CT and will face Lipscomb at 4 p.m. CT.
Get all the latest information on the team by following @AlabamaWTN on Twitter and Facebook and AlabamaWTN on Instagram. General athletic news can also be found at UA_Athletics on Twitter and Instagram and AlabamaAthletics on Facebook.
