Women's Tennis | 4/5/2024 11:00:00 AM

(St. George, Utah – April 5, 2024) - The Trailblazers return home on Sunday for their final home match of the season hosting UTRGV for Senior Day.

Who | UTRGV (8-10, 0-4 WAC) at Utah Tech (6-13, 0-5 WAC)
When | Sunday, April 7 / 10 a.m.
Where | Trailblazer Tennis Courts – St. George, Utah
Social Media | Instagram + Twitter (X)

A GLANCE AT THE UTRGV VAQUEROS
UTRGV is 8-10 overall on the season with an 0-4 mark in the WAC. The Blazers will face Seattle U on the road on Friday prior to coming to Utah.

The Vaqueros are 4-4 on the road with wins over Texas A&M-Kingsville, Houston, Our Lady of the Lake and St. Mary's (Texas).

UTRGV posted a record of 12-9 in 2023 with a 7-2 mark in the conference to finish third in the WAC. The Vaqueros fell in a heartbreaker, 4-3 to New Mexico State in the quarterfinals of the WAC Tournament.

The Trailblazers trail the all-time series against the Vaqueros, 3-0 with UTRGV sweeping the Blazers, 7-0 in St. George last season.

SENIOR DAY RECOGNITION
Sunday will mark three Trailblazers final home match as they will each be honored prior to the start of the match.

• Rachel Mellor
  • A four-year Trailblazer from Australia, Rachel has earned 20 career singles wins and 23 career doubles victories at Utah Tech.
  • Rachel was named a 2021 All-WAC selection in doubles and also earned Academic All-WAC honors in 2023.
• Ya-Chi Hsu
  • A four-year Blazer from Taiwan, Ya-Chi has racked up 11 career singles win and 24 career doubles victories.
  • Ya-Chi has collected five singles wins and nine doubles wins this season while earning Academic All-WAC honors in 2023.
• Alysha Damron
  • A four-year Trailblazer from Heber City, Utah, Alysha collected six career wins tallying four doubles win and two singles victories.
  • Alysha also earned Academic All-WAC honors in 2023.

WAC STANDINGS
With less than two weeks to go until the WAC Championships, set for April 18-20 hosted by UTRGV, the race for seeding continues down the final stretch of the regular season.

The Trailblazers and Vaqueros are both winless in conference action as this weekend's match will be key in seeding for the conference tournament.

Grand Canyon and Tarleton State share the conference lead with 4-0 marks while Abilene Christian is third followed by UT Arlington, Seattle U and Stephen F. Austin.

TEXAS ROAD TRIP
The Trailblazers closed out their road trip finishing with a 1-3 mark defeating UT Dallas on Tuesday while falling to Tarleton State, Abilene Christian and UT Arlington.

Utah Tech got one point each against all three WAC opponents while winning 6-1 over the Comets sweeping the doubles point and got singles points from Adithi Venkatakrishnan, Mariana Zurita, Rachel Mellor, Raquel Roshak and Olivia Bustos.

SINGLES & DOUBLES WIN LEADERS
On the singles side, Mellor leads the team with nine wins, including a 5-0 mark at number three singles.

Venkatakrishnan and Zurita each have six singles wins apiece while Roshak has added five victories.

Flipping over to doubles, Ya-Chi Hsu and Ana Gutierrez Sampere each have a team-leading nine wins with seven coming together at number two doubles.

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 104 wins over his 18 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.

UP NEXT
The Trailblazers close out the regular season at Seattle U (7-7, 2-2 WAC) on April 13 at 10 a.m.