ARLINGTON, Texas – It had already been decided that Tarleton is the No. 2 seed in the 2023 WAC Women's Tennis Tournament, but their opponent was still up in the air until Friday.
 
On Friday, the Western Athletic Conference announced the full 2023 WAC Women's Tennis Tournament bracket, pairing the No. 2 seed Texans with the No. 7 seed Seattle U Redhawks in the first round. The Texans and Redhawks will match up on Thursday at 9 a.m. CT at the Arlington Tennis Center.
 
"I am so proud of this team to have earned the second seed," head coach Elianne Douglas-Miron said. "It's quite an accomplishment to finish in the top-two in the regular season conference standings three years in a row. I attribute that to hard work, competitiveness and grit. We want to win and will be doing everything in our power to earn a conference championship title next week."
 
Tarleton (15-6, 7-2 WAC) finished just one match behind the top-seeded UT Arlington Lady Mavericks, who went 8-1 in conference play. At 7-2, the Texans were tied with the UTRGV Vaqueros, but the purple and white held the tiebreaker due to their head-to-head win.
 
This is the first NCAA Division I conference tournament the Texans will participate in in program history. Tarleton won the WAC regular season title last year but were ineligible to participate in the conference tournament due to their reclassification period.
 
The Texans just matched up with the Redhawks last week, winning 5-2 in Seattle thanks to five singles match wins on Courts 2-6.
 
The Redhawks finished 4-10 overall and 2-5 in conference play. They were one of three teams (Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston) not to play all nine conference matches due to weather cancellations in mid-April. Despite a half-match difference between spots 7-9 in the WAC standings, the matches were not made up, leaving SFA on the outside looking in at 2-6 as the Bearkats (2-6) owned the tiebreaker. Eight of the 10 teams in the WAC make the conference tournament. Utah Tech finished last.
 
The winner between Tarleton and Seattle U will play the winner between No. 3 UTRGV and No. 6 New Mexico State on Friday at 9 a.m. CT at the Arlington Tennis Center. The Texans beat both the Vaqueros and Aggies this season, 6-1 over UTRGV and 4-3 over NMSU. Whoever advances among those four programs will play in the championship match on Saturday at 9 a.m. CT at the Arlington Tennis Center against either No. 1 UT Arlington, No. 4 Grand Canyon, No. 5 Abilene Christian or No. 8 Sam Houston.
 
There are no tickets required to attend the 2023 WAC Women's Tennis Tournament. The event is free and open to the public.