MOBILE, Ala. – The University of South Alabama women's tennis program will make its 12th NCAA Tournament appearance Friday when it takes on host No. 11 Florida State in the first round at the Scott Speicher Memorial Tennis Center.

MATCH INFORMATION
Dates: May 3-4, 2019
Opponent: No. 11 Florida State (May 3)
Host: Florida State
Place: Scott Speicher Memorial Tennis Center
Match Time: 4 p.m. CDT

ON THE COURT FOR THE JAGUARS
-Yu Fujioka (So., Funabashi, Japan, 16-2 singles, 11-8 doubles)
-Alexandria Stiteler (Sr., Bradenton, Fla., 16-6 singles, 14-8 doubles)
-Milka Pasanen (So., Pieksämäki, Finland, 13-4 singles, 12-5 doubles)
-Patricia Martins (Sr., Lisbon, Portugal, 14-3 singles, 14-5 doubles)
-Nikola Kohoutova (So., Kralupy nad Vltavou, Czech Republic, 19-4 singles, 16-6 doubles)
-Leslie Soto (Jr., Santiago, Chile, 4-7 singles, 3-0 doubles)
-Diana Monsalve (Jr., Bogota, Colombia, 9-1 singles, 4-0 doubles)
-Yurie Takanishi (Fr., Haracho, Japan, 2-5 singles, 16-6 doubles)

NOTES
-The winner of Friday's match will face either No. 23 Central Florida or No. 37 Alabama on Saturday at 4 p.m. CDT
-South Alabama has won 20 matches for the fifth straight season, extending its own school record
-USA's 22 victories are tied for the second most in school history
-The Jaguars are coming off their 18th Sun Belt Conference title, a league record
-In 11 previous NCAA appearances, the Jags have a 12-11 record
-Florida State leads the series 9-7 but South Alabama has won four of the last five; the last meeting was in 2003
-Friday's match will be the first between the two schools in the NCAA Tournament
-Stiteler is the program's all-time leader in wins (65) and win percentage (.783) at No. 1; she holds four of the top 10 single-season win totals at the top flight in school history
-Stiteler also holds the program record for most doubles wins at No. 2 (43), and her 55 dual wins overall rank fifth
-Fujioka, the league's player of the year, is third in the Sun Belt this season in dual win percentage at .889 (16-2), and second in win percentage on court 2 at .875 (14-2)
-Fujioka's career dual win percentage is a school-record .949 (37-2); she went 21-0 last season as a freshman
-Kohoutova is second in the conference with 19 victories this spring, and fifth in win percentage (.826)
-FSU has two players ranked in the top 90 in singles: Carla Touly (No. 31) and Emmanuelle Salas (No. 89); Salas and Ana Oparenovic are No. 21 in doubles
-Of Touly's 33 decisions in singles, 21 have been against nationally-ranked opponents (10-11)

QUOTES FROM COACH KEYSER
On facing Florida State: "It's a tough match, no doubt about that, but like I said before, it's a tough match for us and it's a tough match for them too. We're playing with house money; everything's a bonus right now. The good thing is, we've got enough quality on this team that if we mentally engage and play some good tennis, I can see us having the opportunity to win this match."

On the team since winning the Sun Belt Tournament: "Practices have been great. They've been a lot shorter with finals, but we needed a little bit of a rest. Physically, we played a lot of tennis towards the end of the season, and more importantly, mentally we needed a couple of days off. Even though the practices have been short, the quality has been good."

On not having faced FSU since 2003: "I don't think it matters. They're a good team, but we played good opponents in the fall and played some teams of their caliber earlier in the year. The biggest thing is, if we fall behind, or they come at us aggressively at the beginning of matches, we just have to stay the course and trust our stuff."

On what can be learned from the last time the team played a ranked opponent: "The LSU match is a great reference point. Even though we were far away from winning it, we were in a couple of matches and started off good in doubles. In the beginning of singles, they got on top of us, but once we settled down, we had a chance at winning some sets and turning around some matches. Hopefully we can engage a little bit earlier and make Florida State earn their win."

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/WeAreSouth_JAGS. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

Join the Baseline Club, the tennis-specific support club of the Jaguar Athletic Fund. All donations to the Baseline Club go directly to support the South Alabama men's and women's tennis programs. For more information on how you can join visit: http://jaguarathleticfund.com/baselineclub

—USA—