MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – The four-time defending NESCAC Champion and No. 5 nationally ranked Wesleyan women's tennis team has been selected to host one of the eight regional pods for the 2023 NCAA Tournament, earning a bye into the second round on Saturday, May 6 where they await the winner of a first round matchup between Allegheny and Pittsburgh-Greensburg. The Cardinals (17-1) are the first Wesleyan program in school history to win four straight NESCAC titles, having defeated the No. 4 ranked and top-seeded Middlebury Panthers 5-2 in the final.
Wesleyan is making their seventh consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and look for a return to championship weekend, where the Cardinals have advanced in each of the past three seasons, winning the national title in 2019. This is just the second time in program history that Wesleyan has played host to NCAA Regional Round action, with the first time coming back in 2019.
The Cardinals are in the midst of another incredible campaign as the team is 71-5 since the start of the 2019 season. Wesleyan enters the 2023 NCAA Tournament having lost just once during the regular season, a 5-4 defeat that came down to a third set tiebreaker at Middlebury on March 26. Since then, the Cardinals have won eight straight matches, seven of which coming against ranked opponents. The Cardinals are also 5-0 at home this season and haven't suffered a loss in Middletown since April 22, 2018, having won 31 consecutive matches at home.
The NCAA Tournament has been an area of great success over the past three contested season, with the Cardinals wining the NCAA National Title in 2019 while finishing as the National Runner-Up in 2021 and a Semifinalist in 2022. In 2019, Wesleyan defeated the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams (Emory and CMS) by identical 5-4 scores the become the school's first-ever women's team national champion. In 2021, Wesleyan rolled to the national title match before Emory handed the Cardinals their first and only defeat of the season. It was much the same in 2022, as the Cardinals broke a single-season program record with 23 wins, rolling to the national semifinal (Final Four) before suffering their first loss of the season to CMS.
This season, Wesleyan has continued to establish a standard as one of the premier programs in the nation, armed with a 17-1 overall record with 12 wins coming against nationally ranked opponents. The Cardinals head into the NCAA Tournament having recorded three or more singles wins in all 18 of their dual matches this season, while the Cardinals have lost three singles matches just once in the campaign. In doubles play, Wesleyan has lost two matches just twice in 18 duals this season.
Kristina Yu '22 is the lone Cardinal on the current roster that remains from the 2019 National Championship winning team. She is one of just three Cardinals in program history to reach 100 career wins, as she heads into the national postseason tournament with 107 career wins (49 singles, 58 doubles). Yu is 17-5 in singles matches (11-3 in duals) and 17-5 in doubles matches (12-4 in duals) this season and most-recently won her match at #4 singles which was the clinching point in the NESCAC title match victory over Middlebury.
Nika Vesely '25 has been unstoppable for Wesleyan during the dual match season, heading into the NCAA Tournament with an unblemished 14-0 record at #1 singles while she is 12-2 in doubles play (11-1 at #2 doubles with
Caitlyn Ferrante '23). The sophomore has lost just two sets in singles dual matches this season while she has won 18 consecutive sets dating back to March 14.
Renna Mohsen-Breen '25 and
Sarah Youngberg '26 are two dynamic underclassmen who have starred in both doubles and singles this season. Mohsen-Breen has never lost a singles dual match, sporting a 29-0 career record including a 15-0 mark in 2023. Her 38 career singles wins are second-most on the team behind only Yu entering the NCAA Tournament, while her 18 singles victories in 2022-23 are the most on the team. Youngberg, meanwhile, is 12-1 in duals while she sports a 17-2 overall singles record in 2022-23. As a tandem, the duo sports the best doubles record for Wesleyan this spring, as the underclassmen combo are 16-1 as a team with all but one match coming from the #3 position.
Leila Epstein '26 is the established #2 for the Cardinals in singles play, entering the postseason with a 12-1 record in dual matches and a winner of six straight. Ferrante has held the #3 singles spot in the Cardinal lineup for a majority of the season, sporting a 9-7 overall record in duals this spring. Her 35 career singles wins are third-most on the team.
Katie Fleischman '23 and
Serim Jin '23 offer great depth for the Cardinals as each has been used in the #6 singles position this spring. Jin is 10-0 in duals this season while Fleischman has 33 career singles wins.
Wesleyan will face either Allegheny or Pitt.-Greenburg in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday, May 6 at 10 AM. The Cardinals have never faced either team. The other three teams in the regional pod are Mary Washington, TCNJ and Cairn.
