Tulane announces complete 2017-18 women’s tennis schedule

NEW ORLEANS – Ahead of her first season lead the Tulane women’s tennis program, head coach Maria Brito announced the team’s complete 2017-18 schedule on Friday.

The Green Wave will play a minimum of 24 dual matches during the spring, which includes 10 home contests, eight on the road and six at neutral sites. Five opponents, including Auburn, Miami or Santa Barbara, LSU, Tulsa and UL Monroe, made NCAA Tournament appearances last season.

“We are super excited to begin competing and get the season started,” Brito said. “Beginning with day one, we will be extremely focused on the process. I’m big on not necessarily looking at the results, but I’m more focused on winning the day. If we do that, we’re going to be prepared and then the results will come.”

Tulane will compete in just three team events during the fall, not including the Riviera ITA All-American Championships that begins with pre-qualifying on Sept. 30 in Pacific Palisades, Calif. The first team tournament will take place Oct. 6-8 at the Samford Invitational in Birmingham, Ala. The Green Wave will travel to Auburn, Ala., Oct. 19-23 for the 2017 ITA Regionals, before closing out the fall season Oct. 27-29 at the Roberta Allison Classic in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

The spring campaign will open serve on Jan. 21 with a home doubleheader beginning at 12 noon against Northwestern State and New Orleans, before Tulane returns to Auburn for a pair of matches at ITA Kickoff Weekend.

The remainder of the spring includes home matches against UTSA (Feb. 16), South Alabama (Feb. 17), Tulsa (March 24), SMU (March 25), UL Monroe (March 30), Southern Miss (March 31), Southern (March 31) and Louisiana Lafayette (Apr. 13)

Road matches include contests at UAB (Feb. 3), Missouri (Feb. 10), LSU (Feb. 20), Middle Tennessee (Feb. 25), UConn (March 4) and Memphis (March 18). Sprinkled in on several road trips will be neutral site bouts against South Dakota State (Feb. 11 in Columbia, Mo.), Chattanooga (Feb. 24 in Murfreesboro, Tenn.), Temple (March 3 in Storrs, Conn.), Virginia Tech (March 10 in Norfolk, Va.) and East Carolina (March 17 in Memphis).

The 2018 American Athletic Conference Championships will be held Apr. 18-22 at SMU in Dallas, Texas, while NCAA Tournament play will begin May 11-13. The NCAA Championships will take place May 18-22 in Winston-Salem, N.C.