Women's Tennis Kicks Off Season in South Carolina

PROVO -- The No. 47 BYU women’s tennis team will travel to South Carolina Friday to open its season against No. 33 University of South Carolina. With five returning players and four gifted new freshmen, including blue-chip recruit McCall Jones, the young team will have its first test of the season against the Gamecocks.

“South Carolina is a tough first match,” BYU coach Craig Manning said. “We’re looking forward to it so we can see where we’re at.”

BYU and South Carolina have been evenly matched in the past with the Cougars holding a slight 9-8 advantage in the all-time series record. Last season, BYU upset the Gamecocks 5-1 with big wins in both singles and doubles play.

USC has two players ranked in the preseason polls with senior Gira Schofield coming in at No. 19 and junior Ana Zubori earning the No. 54 spot. The two are also ranked in doubles, just breaking into the top 20.

“We’ve worked hard to get our doubles teams good and to get players in and build a good team,” Manning said. “It should be an exciting year.”

Friday’s match against South Carolina begins at 4 p.m. ET.