(St. George, Utah – Jan. 25, 2024) - The Utah Tech women's tennis team returns home to host Utah State on Saturday afternoon for its home opener.

Who | Utah Tech (0-2, 0-0 WAC) vs. Utah State (0-1, 0-0 Mountain West)
When | Saturday, Jan. 27 / 12 p.m.
Where | Trailblazer Tennis Courts – St. George, Utah
Social Media | Instagram + Twitter (X)

A GLANCE AT UTAH STATE
The Aggies opened the season last weekend hosting Idaho State with Utah State falling, 5-2 in Logan.

Utah State is coming off a 7-14 season in 2023 with a 2-8 mark in the Mountain West with wins over Fresno State and Colorado State. The Aggies topped the Trailblazers, 7-0 at home last year on Feb. 5.

Led by first-year head coach Veronika Golanova, the Aggies bring back six returners from 2023 with four newcomers.

Utah State got points against the Bengals from fifth-year senior Zeynep Naz Ozturk at number two singles and junior Indya Nespor at number five singles.

OPENING WEEKEND
The Trailblazers opened the season last weekend against Utah and Montana State in Salt Lake City falling in straight sets to the Utes and 6-1 to the Bobcats.

Utah Tech battled tough in doubles taking the Bobcats' top two double teams to the brink before falling late.

In singles action, Utah Tech earned a point at number six singles with freshman Kylie Kezos pulling out a third set tiebreaker over Hudson Hawkins winning 6-4, 1-6, 11-9.

LOOK BACK AT THE FALL SCHEDULE

• UNLV WATANABE CLASSIC: Utah Tech earned three wins in the tournament with a seventh place match of the Flight 1 Doubles pairing, Mariana Berdecio and Annemiek Sterk, earned a 7-5 win over Dolavee Tumthong/Ava Neyestani of Northern Arizona.
• ITA MOUNTAIN REGIONALS: The Trailblazers earned a pair of wins in singles (Adithi Venkatakrishnan & Kylie Kezos) and one in doubles (Kylie Kezos & Ana Guiterrez Sampre) at the ITA Mountain Regionals hosted by Utah in Salt Lake City on Oct. 18-21.
• IDAHO STATE FALL INVITATIONAL: In the Orange Singles Draw, sophomore Adithi Venkatakrishnan and freshman Mariana Zurita both picked up victories in that bracket. In the Doubles "A" Draw, the duo of senior Ya-Chi Hsu and Venkatakrishnan bounced back from a first round loss to advance to the Consolation final, while the tandem of Rachel Mellor and Mariana Zurita won their first match, but the duo was eliminated in the Championship Bracket semifinals. In the Doubles "B" Draw, the freshman team of Ana Gutierrez Sampere and Olivia Bustos bounced back from a first round loss with two victories to win the Consolation Bracket title.

2024 ROSTER
The 2023-24 roster consists of 11 student-athletes with four freshmen, three sophomores, one junior and three seniors.

The Trailblazers return six student-athletes from last year while welcoming four freshmen and one junior college transfer in Laura Coulome.

Seven Trailblazers are from outside of the United States while four Blazers hail from the United States.

HEAD COACH ERIC PELTON
Eric Pelton is in his 18th season as the head coach of the Utah Tech women's tennis program in 2024.

Utah Tech has racked up 98 wins over his 17 seasons leading the Trailblazers and helped lead then-Dixie State to a career-high 13 wins in 2018-19 and added six more in the COVID-19 shortened season of 2019-20.

2023 IN REVIEW
Utah Tech went 2-19 in dual action in the spring season with a pair of 7-0 wins over Eastern Arizona. The Trailblazers went 0-9 in WAC action and took Seattle to seven points at home on March 26 falling to the Redhawks, 4-3.

UP NEXT
The Trailblazers are off next weekend before returning to action against Weber State (Feb. 9) and Idaho State (Feb. 10) in Ogden.