DURANT, Okla. -- The Midwestern State women's tennis team is on the road for its first dual match of the season as the Mustangs visit Southeastern Oklahoma State on Saturday. First serve at the Southeastern Tennis Complex is scheduled for 3 p.m.

Midwestern State finished last season with a 17-8 overall record, including a 5-0 win over the Savage Storm at the MSU Tennis Center.

Hannah Yip, Skylar Minns and Micaela McSpadden were all in the lineup for that dual match and are back with the Mustangs this season.

Yip was an All-Lone Star Conference doubles player in 2022 and was named the 24 Strong Teammate of the Year last season. Yip earned a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Letizia Corsini of Angelo State, who was ranked No. 39 in the nation. The junior from Malaysia finished last season with an 8-14 record in singles, including a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Lea Manga of Cameron at No. 3 singles in the NCAA Division II South Central Regional.

Yip reached the quarterfinals at ITA Division II Women's South Central Regional Championship and is ranked No. 7 in the South Central Rankings.

Minns was 13-3 in singles last season, and the senior from Aransas Pass, Texas, started last season with an 8-0 record. Minns won 11 singles matches in straight sets and finished the campaign with a 2-2 record in three-set matches.

McSpadden transferred to MSU from Emporia State and posted a 10-6 record in singles last season. The junior from Oologah, Oklahoma, defeated Anastasiia Opolska of Lubbock Christian, 6-2, 7-6 (5), in the LSC Tournament quarterfinals last spring. McSpadden won eight matches in straight sets and finished last season with a 2-1 record in three-set matches.

McSpadden is tied for No. 20 in the South Central Rankings with Maya Adler of Lubbock Christian.

Anda Ghinga is back with the Mustangs this season after sitting out last season with a medical redshirt. The Romanian was an All-Lone Star Conference singles player in both her freshman and sophomore seasons with the Mustangs. In 2021, Ghinga was named Lone Star Conference Freshman of the Year. As a sophomore, she 16-11 in singles and 22-6 in doubles.

Ghinga is the No. 29-ranked singles player in the first ITA Division II Women's National Singles Rankings, and she is ranked No. 4 in the South Central Rankings behind Alessa Maier of Texas A&M-Kingsville, Selina Wu of St. Mary's and Muskan Gupta of UT-Tyler.

Ghinga and Sydney Williams are tied for No. 10 in the South Central Doubles Rankings with Maier and Isabel Neumer of TAMUK.

Ghinga and Williams were eliminated in the Round of 16 at the ITA Division II Women's South Central Regional Championship by Sofia Teran and Isabella Rios of Dallas Baptist.

Williams was 15-7 in doubles last spring, playing all 22 matches at No. 1 doubles.

Jessic Binzari, a lefty from Romania, has transferred to MSU from Coker, where she broke the school record for most singles wins in a season as she finished the campaign with an 18-2 record at No. 1 singles. Binzari earned All-South Atlantic Conference Singles Second Team as a sophomore last year.

Midwestern State is 23-2 against Southeastern but lost its last visit to Durant in 2022, 4-3. Ghinga, Yip, Minns and Williams were all in the lineup as the Mustangs saw an 11-match winning streak snapped by the Savage Storm, which was ranked No. 25 in the nation at the time.

Southeastern is coming off a 6-1 victory over Northeastern State and improved to 4-0 to start the season.

Southeastern has won back-to-back Great American Conference tournament championships and was picked to win the regular season championship by the league's head coaches in a preseason poll.

Vanessa Nitu, Sara Gonzalez and Georgia Hosking were named All-GAC last season and are among the five players that return from last year's championship team.

Midwestern State host Findlay (Ohio) on Wednesday afternoon at 2 p.m. before competing in the UT Tyler Invitational March 1-3.

 

--MSUMustangs.com--