Women's tennis selected to finish sixth in WCC

SAN BRUNO, Calif. – The BYU women's tennis team was selected to finish sixth overall in the West Coast Conference for the 2017-18 season in the preseason coaches poll, the league office announced Wednesday.

Pepperdine was selected to win the WCC crown for the upcoming 2018 season.

The Cougars finished the 2016-17 season in sixth place.

The annual preseason poll was voted on by the league coaches and ranks the ten-team field and top six players to start the campaign.

Pepperdine is the unanimous selection to win, garnering nine first place votes as conference policy prohibits coaches from casting a vote for their own team. The Waves collected 81 points to take the top spot, a year after winning their fifth straight WCC Championship and 13th title in the last 15 years. Waves seniors Laura Gulbe and Mayar Sherif, junior Luisa Stefani and sophomore Ashley Lahey are represented on the seven-person All-WCC Preseason team.

Gonzaga collected 68 points and was picked to finish second in the conference preseason poll. Juniors Nevada Apollo and Sophie Whittle represent the Bulldogs on the All-WCC Preseason Women’s Team.

Loyola Marymount earned the final first-place vote and was third overall with 67 points, just one shy of Gonzaga’s second-place spot.

Saint Mary’s and San Diego both collected 54 points to sit tied for fourth to round out the top half of the poll. BYU follows at sixth with 40 points.

Santa Clara (32 points), Portland (22 points), San Francisco (21 points) and Pacific (11 points) claim the sixth through tenth spots, respectively, to fill out the preseason poll. Santa Clara’s Madison Clarke claimed the final spot on the All-WCC Preseason team.

A total of seven women were selected to the preseason team due to a tie in voting.

The 2018 WCC Women’s Tennis Championship will take place at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center in Claremont, Calif., April 26-28.

2018 WEST COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TENNIS PRESEASON POLL (First Place Votes)


School	Points
1. Pepperdine (9)	81
2. Gonzaga	68
3. Loyola Marymount (1)	67
T4. Saint Mary's	54
T4. San Diego	54
6. BYU	40
7. Santa Clara	32
8. Portland	22
9. San Francisco	21
10. Pacific	11

2018 ALL-WCC PRESEASON WOMEN’S TENNIS TEAM


Name	School
Nevada Apollo, Jr.	Gonzaga
Madison Clarke, Jr.	Santa Clara
Laura Gulbe, Sr.	Pepperdine
Ashely Lahey, Soph.	Pepperdine
Mayar Sherif, Sr.	Pepperdine
Luisa Stefani, Jr.	Pepperdine
Sophie Whittle, Jr.	Gonzaga