ECU Heads To VCU And James Madison

Match 2: ECU (0-1) at VCU (1-1)
Date	Friday, January 24
Time	1 p.m. (EST)
Location	Richmond, Va. (Thalhimer Tennis Center)
Social Media	Twitter: @ECUWTennis Instagram: @ECUWTennis Facebook: ECU Pirates Women's Tennis

Match 3: ECU (0-1) at James Madison (0-0)
Date	Saturday, January 25
Time	10 a.m. (EST)
Location	Harrisonburg, Va. (East Campus Tennis Courts)
Coverage	Live Scoring
Social Media	Twitter: @ECUWTennis Instagram: @ECUWTennis Facebook: ECU Pirates Women's Tennis

GREENVILLE, N.C. – After a season-opening setback against the No. 8 team in the country, the ECU women's tennis team will try to get back on track with a pair of road matches at VCU and James Madison.

"We're going to be challenged, this will be a great challenge for our program and our ladies," said head coach Tom Morris. "I thought we looked pretty good against NC State. Both VCU and JMU have very solid programs. For VCU, one through six, they're a little bit better this year than they've been. So is James Madison. They're both winnable matches if we play our very, very best. We can't play any less than that and expect to win these matches."

ECU (0-1) opened the season with a 7-0 loss to No. 8 NC State, although the Pirates came close to winning multiple points. Lisa Hofbauer and Sibel Tanik were serving with a chance to win the doubles point and NC State needed a tiebreak to finally clinch the point while Minette Van Vreden also fell in a tiebreaker in her singles match. The Pirates were in this position last year, having opened their season with losses to NC State and North Carolina, both of whom were nationally ranked, before rattling off a school-record 22 straight victories. ECU will look to Hofbauer and Alisa Diercksen to turn their season around, as the pair are combined 3-8 this year after going 40-22 last season. Michelle Ncube, Nastja Rettich and Sibel Tanik held the three through five spots in the lineup against NC State and the trio are all tied for the team lead in singles wins with eight.

VCU started its season with a 4-0 win over Temple before falling to Syracuse 4-2. Paola Delgado is the top singles player for the Rams, owning an 11-6 record and checking in at No. 97 in the ITA's Singles Rankings. Gabriela Davidescu is 8-3 in singles and won both of her dual matches to start the season. In doubles, Noumea Witmus has been a versatile weapon for the Rams, owning a 9-3 overall record which includes four different partners. ECU last played in Richmond against the Rams in the 2016-17 season, with VCU taking a 5-2 win. Both Hofbauer and Rettich will be looking to avenge singles losses from that day.

James Madison will be opening its season against ECU on Saturday morning. The Dukes went 14-9 last season, winning the CAA Championship and falling to Duke in the first round of the NCAA Championship. Jona Roka leads James Madison with a 9-2 singles record so far this season while Natalia Nikolopoulou has a 9-4 record of her own. Daria Afanasyeva played every match on court one for the Dukes last year and went 10-9, but is just 5-5 to start this campaign. The Dukes have found success on the doubles courts so far, going 25-8 as a team. Kylie Moulin and Roka have combined to go 7-3 as a duo while the partnerships of Nikolopoulou and Afanasyeve as well as Los Arcos and Danielle Voloh are each 6-1.

The Pirates will take on VCU at 1 p.m., on Friday in Richmond, Va., before heading to Harrisonburg, Va., to take on James Madison at 10 a.m., on Saturday morning. Follow the live results of the James Madison match here.

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Players Mentioned

Alisa Diercksen

Lisa Hofbauer

Michelle Ncube

Nastja Rettich

Sibel Tanik

Minette Van Vreden

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