DENVER – The University of Denver women's tennis team begins its 2026 dual season with its home opener against Seattle on Friday, January 23, at 4 p.m. MT.
Friday's match is the second of a doubleheader for DU Tennis with the Denver men's team hosting its opener against Texas Tech at 12 p.m. MT. Free pizza will be available during the matches as part of the opening-weekend celebration.
All home matches are held at Denver Tennis Park, and admission and parking are free.
Season Preview:
Denver was once again voted as the preseason favorite to win the Summit League title after winning its 11
th consecutive championship a season ago. DU returns seven student-athletes from last year's roster including four seniors in
Hana Bečirovič Novak,
Marley Lambert,
Claudia Martinez de Velasco and
Louise Wikander. Together with sophomore
Natálie Cinková, five of Denver's six singles players from 2025 are back. Combined, they accounted for 89 singles wins last year.
Two DU players saw their first collegiate action during the 2025 fall after redshirting last season in
Natali Jaiani and
Remy Nguyen.
Senior transfer
Zoe Adkins joins the upperclassmen after earning her second consecutive All-Summit League Team honor in 2024-25 while playing at Omaha. She joins true freshmen
Yunfei Cai and
Ruby Hansen on this year's DU roster.
All 10 Denver student-athletes played during the 2025 fall season, which was highlighted by Wikander's trip to the NCAA Division I Singles Championship in November after winning the ITA Mountain Regional title.
2025 Recap:
DU won its 11
th Summit League title in a row to advance to the NCAA National Championships for the 14
th time in program history. Denver finished with a 12-10 overall record including a six-match win streak entering the NCAA tournament and another perfect 6-0 record in Summit League play.
Then-senior
Andrea Burguete Beltran qualified for the NCAA Division I Singles Championship field and upset the then-No. 31-ranked player in the country in the first round, becoming the fourth DU women's player to win a singles match at the NCAA individual tournament.
Series History:
This will be just the third meeting between Denver and Seattle with DU owning wins in the previous two. The teams last met on February 28, 2020, in what was one of their final matches before the season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Denver swept that match, 7-0, at Denver Tennis Park.
Starting in 2026-27, Denver and Seattle will become conference foes as DU joins the West Coast Conference beginning on July 1, 2026. The University of Denver announced that it will be joining the conference on October 31, 2025.
Up Next:
The University of Denver women's tennis team continues its five-match home stand to begin the dual season when it hosts Miami (Ohio) on Saturday, January 31, at 1 p.m. MT.
