Five things to know: Badgers open up season in Auburn and San Francisco

Friday, September 20

Auburn, AL

All Day

Wisconsin Badgers

Marliss Gruver Memorial Invitational

BTN Tailgate
Football vs Purdue
Nebraska Men's Football
Lincoln, Nebraska
Game Start Time: 2:30 PM
Game Date September 8, 2018
Photo by Isabel Thalken/NU Communications

Photo by: Isabel Thalken

Five things to know: Badgers open up season in Auburn and San Francisco

September 17, 2019 | Women's Tennis

New look Badger team will seek early experience in first competitions

MADISON, Wis. -- Kicking off their 2019-2020 season, the Wisconsin women's tennis team will split up its squad and travel to both the Marliss Gruver Memorial Tournament, hosted by Auburn from Sept. 20-22, and the Battle in the Bay tournament hosted by the University of San Francisco from Sept. 20-23.

1. NEW TEAM: Last season, the Badgers made the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2005. This year, Wisconsin will look to repeat at his endeavor and return to the big dance two years in a row for the first tim ein school history, but they will have to do it with some new faces. The Badgers lost three players from last year's tournament team, including their consistent No. 1 player in Sara Castellano. Wisconsin has picked up three players since then, including a Texas Tech transfer named to the Big Twelve All-Freshman team last season in Antonela Stoica. Wisconsin also adds a new assistant coach to the staff in Anthony Nguyen. Nguyen brings Big Ten experience from being apart of the coaching staff at Purdue and will look to add to the new Badger team look.

2. NEW LEADER: Transfer sophomore, Antonela Stoica will look to be the team's new No. 1 player as she was named to the preseason fall rankings coming it at No. 108 in the country. She was also named to the draw of participants that will partake in the pre-qualifying from the ITA All-Americans Championship tournament October 5-6. Even though the Badgers have lost some of their top talent from last year, players like Stoica, as well as returners Anna Makarova, Ava Markham, Melissa Pick and Christina Zordani are ready to step up and take on the role.

3. TOP COMPETITION: The Badgers will face off against some of the top competition in the country this weekend at both tournaments. In Auburn, teams include Notre Dame, Kansas, Kansas State, Ole Miss and Penn State. Out of these teams, Kansas was the only team to finish in the ITA Top 25 at the end of last season coming in at No. 20. In San Francisco, the Badgers have to change to face off against top teams like Stanford, California, USC and Michigan, who all finished in the ITA Top 25 poll at the end of last season.

4. TRAVELING BADGERS: Wisconsin's upcoming fall schedule includes a lot of travel this year. The Badgers will travel Oklahoma, for the Norman $15K Invite and the ITA All-Americans. UW will also head back to California, for the Saint Mary's Fall Classic next month. The Badgers will head to Tuscaloosa Alabama, for the Roberta Alison Fall Classic and finally, the team will set course for Tallahassee, Fla. to take part in the FSU All-Conference Showdown. Wisconsin's first action at home will be on Jan. 31 against Drake.

5. HOW TO WATCH: Fans can keep up with scores and releases from this weekend on @BadgerWTennis on Twitter as well as various notifications from Auburn's and San Francisco's official Twitter accounts - @AuburnWTennis and @USFDonsWTennis.