UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State women’s tennis program will begin the fall campaign at the Debbie Southern Fall Classic hosted by Furman University from Friday, September 12 to Sunday, September 14. Each day’s action will begin at 9 a.m. at the Mickel Tennis Center.
Friday will open with two rounds of doubles followed by one round of singles. Saturday will be one round of doubles and one of singles before the tournament concludes with a round of singles play on Sunday.
The event features six teams who made the NCAA Tournament a season ago in Clemson, Furman, Georgia Tech, South Carolina, Texas Tech and Wake Forest. Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky and Mississippi State round out the group who will accompany the Nittany Lions in Greenville, South Carolina.
Head Coach Alexandra McIntyre enters her seventh season leading the program in 2025-26 following her winningest season at the helm a season ago. The team’s 14 wins were the most since the 2012-13 season.
The squad returns seven student-athletes from last year’s squad. Seniors Olivia Dorner and Maiko Uchijima, NCAA Doubles Championship qualifiers last fall, headline the returners. The pair was 22-9 last year across the top two courts. Dorner finished the spring as an All-Big Ten Second Team selection with an 12-13 (8-8 dual) singles record oat the top spot. Uchijima compiled a 13-14 (8-11 dual) singles record on court two.
The Nittany Lions bring back three juniors in Jordina Cegarra, Kate Zink and Katerina Dimitrova. Cegarra went 9-9 (4-4 dual) in singles playing mainly on court five. Pairing with Patricia Grigoras she went 12-13 (9-10 dual) in doubles play across courts one and two. Zink earned the first singles and doubles victories of her career at last year’s Martha Thorn Invitational. Dimitrova returns from an injury a season ago.
Sophomores Grigoras and Maria Daciana Ciubotaru are coming off highly successful rookie campaigns. Grigoras finished 19-9 (13-7 dual), mostly on the third spot, in singles to earn a spot on the Big Ten All-Freshman Team. After joining the program in the spring, Ciubotaru totaled a 6-5 singles and 5-7 doubles mark.
The program welcomes three newcomers in junior Maelie Monfils, sophomore Brianna Baldi and freshman Ansley Cox. Monfils joins from Florida State where she went 13-5 (8-3 dual) in singles and 15-9 (11-6 dual) in doubles. Baldi, a former top recruit out of North Carolina, finished her freshman year at Wake Forest with a 16-6 (10-5 dual) singles record and 1-4 doubles record. Cox is a four-star recruit out of Vestavia, Alabama.
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