UW Women’s tennis sweeps Stetson in first round of NCAA Tournament
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA - Hosting the First and Second rounds of the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time overall and first time since 2019, the Washington Husky women’s tennis team completed a 4-0 sweep over the Stetson Hatters to send them to the next round tomorrow against a familiar opponent. The Huskies took the doubles point in strong fashion as a new pairing in McKenna Koening and Carina Syrtveit looked dominant and secured the first doubles point, while Washington secured the doubles round as despite a rough first set from their top doubles pair of Reece Carter and Alexia Jacob, the two rebounded to take the victory. Washington made some history with this result, as their 21 wins is tied for the most in the era of head coach Robin Stephenson, while also matching the second most wins in a season in program history. With their victory over the Hatters in the first round, the Huskies will face CAL tomorrow after the Golden Bears swept Sacramento State earlier today.
“I’m super happy with the win today. We are very happy to get another match on our home courts in front of so many people who support us every single day.”
Sights from the doubles portion of this NCAA Tournament first round match between the visiting Stetson Hatters and our Washington Husky women’s tennis team on Friday, May 2nd, 2025 at the Bill Quillian Tennis Stadium. (Photos by Sam Hotaling for Circling Seattle Sports)
Strong showing secures the doubles point for the Huskies
Washington was able to secure the doubles point to kick off this first round matchup between impressive efforts from their top two doubles teams. Head coach Robin Stephenson opted for a change to their second and third doubles units, as she paired senior McKenna Koening with freshman Carina Syrtveit for the first change to that doubles lineup since the start of Big Ten conference play. That pairing of freshman and senior looked dominant and set the tone for the Huskies, taking a 6-1 victory over the Hatters junior duo of Katsiaryna Tuliakova and Anastasija Adeikyte. It was a strong way for Washington to get the first step towards the doubles point, and the Huskies would secure that with a comeback effort from their top duo. That top Husky doubles duo of Reece Carter and Alexia Jacobs got behind early to Stetson’s Cheri Darley and Alanna DiFrancesco, dropping the first set before roaring back to take a 6-2 victory.
While Washington has showcased their strength throughout the course of this 2025 season, ranking 16th in the nation per the ITA’s most recent rankings as a team, Stetson wasn’t about to go down quietly in this NCAA Tournament matchup and that was shown in that first set against the top Husky pairing and into the singles matches. Having claimed both the ASUN Regular Season and ASUN Tournament titles for the second consecutive year, Stetson is no pushover, after all.
Singles matches provide stress throughout the day
This first round matchup against the Hatters proved to be a gritty one in the singles round, as the top three courts all were in tie breakers at some point throughout the course of the day as the fifth and sixth singles players for Washington ended up collecting two of the three wins of the day as Alexia Jacobs picked up the programs second victory in singles. This first ever meeting between the two programs presented excellent tennis for those in attendance at the outdoor courts of Bill Quillian Tennis Stadium, and the scrappy Hatters (Ranked 74th in the ITA rankings, their first appearance in the top 75 since) ensured that they were going to get the most they could out of their first trip across the country since 2020.
Senior Sophie Luescher won the first singles point of the day for the purple and gold in this NCAA Tournament first round match between the visiting Stetson Hatters and our Washington Husky women’s tennis team on Friday, May 2nd, 2025 at the Bill Quillian Tennis Stadium. (Photos by Sam Hotaling for Circling Seattle Sports)
The first singles point of the day for Washington came from court five, as Sophie Luescher dominated Clelia Lombardi through two sets to help extend the Washington lead following the strong showing in doubles play. While the top three courts battled it out on seemingly every single serve, Luescher seemed to provide a bit of a boost from her spot on court five to get the Huskies that second point on the scoreboard. The ability and experience of the senior in Luescher ultimately proved to be too much for the sophomore Lombardi, getting Washington going when their top three courts saw gritty and tight battles.
Sophomore Alexia Jacobs won the second singles point of the day for the purple and gold in this NCAA Tournament first round match between the visiting Stetson Hatters and our Washington Husky women’s tennis team on Friday, May 2nd, 2025 at the Bill Quillian Tennis Stadium. (Photos by Sam Hotaling for Circling Seattle Sports)
Alexia Jacobs, a sophomore that’s been a major contributor for Washington during her now two years with the program, helped the Huskies push this first round matchup to the brink by battling to take the second singles point and third point overall on the day. It appeared as though Jacobs was going to run away with the first set after securing a strong lead early against Stetson’s Alanna DiFrancesco, but the senior from Madrid, Spain for the Hatters battled back hard to send the first set to tiebreakers. In back and forth fashion (obviously, it’s tennis), things were tense but ultimately Jacobs pulled through to take the first set before dominating in the second to secure victory. With the top two Huskies singles players in Erika Matsuda and Reece Carter in the middle of tight battles, it was Washington’s stellar freshman that put this event away all the way down on court six.
Freshman Carina Syrtveit clinched the match for the Huskies in this one in dominant fashion, as it appeared that her strong play with Koenig in the doubles section of the day was a launch point for her going into singles. Syrtveit had her hands full with Stetson junior Anastasija Adeikyte, but it’s not as though Carina hasn’t proven herself already in just her freshman season. Having secured her spot on the All-Big Ten Freshman Team, including earning Big Ten Freshman of the week honors twice, the talented youngster from Oslo, Norway showed out to get Washington the victory as she beat Adeikyte by final scores of 6-2 and 7-5, giving the Huskies the clean 4-0 sweep as they punch their ticket to the second round.
Sights of the three purple and gold players that saw their singles matches go to “did not finish” in this NCAA Tournament first round match between the visiting Stetson Hatters and our Washington Husky women’s tennis team on Friday, May 2nd, 2025 at the Bill Quillian Tennis Stadium. (Photos by Sam Hotaling for Circling Seattle Sports)
What’s next?
Following their sweep of the Stetson Hatters in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, our Washington Husky women’s tennis team is back in action tomorrow, Saturday, May 2nd. The Huskies will host a familiar foe in the second round of the tournament as they’ll face off against the California Golden Bears at the Bill Quillian Tennis Stadium (If weather allows, otherwise it’ll take place inside of the Nordstrom Tennis Center) with a start time set at 1PM PDT. In the match prior to Washington’s, Cal also completed a 4-0 sweep of their opponent, as the Golden Bears handled Sacramento State to advance in the 11AM PDT time slot earlier today. The Golden Bears came into the NCAA Tournament having won their first round ACC Championship matchup against Louisville, dropping to Virginia in the second round in sweep fashion. In the regular season, Cal held a 14-8 overall record and a 9-3 conference record in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
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