The UCF women’s tennis team, currently ranked No. 25, will travel west for two matches this weekend as part of its Big 12 schedule. The Knights will face No. 73 Arizona on Friday at the LaNelle Robson Tennis Center in Tucson and then play No. 12 Arizona State on Sunday at the Whiteman Tennis Center in Tempe.
UCF recently opened its Big 12 campaign with wins over BYU and Utah. Against BYU, the Knights secured the doubles point through victories by Jantje Tilbuerger and Marina Gatell, as well as Olivia Bergler and Lauren Seye. In singles play, freshman Seye led with a straight-sets win, followed by Jade Psonka’s victory on court six. Despite BYU claiming one singles match, UCF clinched the overall win when Tilbuerger closed out her match.
The team continued its strong performance against Utah with a sweep. Doubles pairs Psonka/Andreevskaya and Tilbuerger/Gatell secured early points, while singles wins from Seye, Psonka, and Tilbuerger completed the result.
“Facing their first Big 12 road test of the season, head coach Bryan Koniecko and his squad will look to maintain their success away from home.” According to program records, since joining the conference before the 2023-24 season, UCF has only lost two regular-season road matches in Big 12 play.
This week marks UCF’s return to the top 25 of the ITA Poll after briefly dropping to No. 39 in February; previously, they had appeared in 17 consecutive top-25 polls. During non-conference play this year, UCF went undefeated against other Florida teams—posting a perfect record that stands as both their best in-state showing this season and under coach Koniecko.
Senior captain Jantje Tilbuerger holds an 8-1 dual-match record so far this season and is riding a five-match winning streak after helping secure victories in both opening conference matches for UCF.
Jade Psonka also enters the weekend with an eight-win tally in dual matches and is currently on a six-match win streak playing at position six.
Friday’s meeting between UCF and Arizona will be their first ever contest. Arizona holds a current season record of seven wins and five losses (5-4 at home). Their head coach Ryan Stotland is now in his eighth year leading the Wildcats; last year he guided them to a strong home record of 14-2. Senior Tanvi Narendran leads Arizona’s lineup with nine singles wins this spring after being named Big 12 Scholar Athlete of the Year for 2025.
On Sunday, UCF faces Arizona State for just their second matchup ever; UCF won their previous meeting in January last year by a score of 4-2. The Sun Devils are led by head coach Jamea Jackson who joined ASU from Princeton ahead of this season; she coached Emilija Tverijonaite to NCAA Singles Championship qualification—a player now ranked as high as No.16 nationally—and Vivian Ovrootsky was recently recognized as Big 12 Player of the Week with twenty singles wins recorded so far this year.
