WTEN Preview \\ at Furman, Duke, NC Central

THIS WEEK
The University of Iowa women’s tennis team opens the 2026 spring season with a three-match weekend in the Carolinas. The Hawkeyes will face Furman in their season opener at 10 a.m. (CT) on Saturday at the Mickel Tennis Center in Greenville, South Carolina, before taking on No. 8 Duke at 8:30 a.m. and NC Central at noon on Monday at the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center in Durham, North Carolina.

FOLLOW LIVE
• Fans can follow the matches via live stats and updates will be provided on the Iowa women’s tennis’ X account at @iowa_tennis.

THE OPPONENTS
• Furman is coming off a strong fall season, where Lillie Murphy and Elle Warren were one of two all-freshman doubles teams to qualify for the NCAA Doubles Championships.
• Duke opens the spring season ranked No. 8 in the ITA poll. The Blue Devils return six letterwinners from 2025, where they advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament before falling to eventual national champion, Georgia, 4-1.
• North Carolina Central posted a 13-9 overall record in 2025. The Eagles advanced to the MEAC championship match before falling to top-seeded South Carolina State, 4-0.

QUICK HITTERS
• Iowa returns five letterwinners from a team that won 13 matches and finished tied for eighth in the Big Ten standings and earned an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament.
• The Hawkeyes’ NCAA Tournament appearance was the first in 15 years. 
• Sasha Boros is in her 10th season as Iowa’s head coach.  The Iowa alum has guided the Hawkeyes to 102 victories -- the second-most in program history behind Micki Schillig’s 112 wins. Boros has 279 wins as a head coach in stops at Stetson, Missouri and Iowa.

IN THE RANKINGS
• Sophomore Sally Xu and freshman Eline Bex were ranked 82nd in the ITA doubles rankings at the conclusion of the fall season. 

ALL EYES ON DAI
Senior Dianne Hayashida has been named a Big Ten Preseason Player to Watch for the 2026 season. The Peru native posted a 5-4 record in singles and doubles during the fall.
• Hayashida won a team-best 20 singles matches during the 2025 season, earning her second first-team All-Big Ten honor. 

TESS RETURNS
Senior Tereza Dejnozkova returns for her final season as a Hawkeye after tallying 14 singles and 13 doubles wins during the 2025 season.  She was a second-team All-Big Ten honoree.
•The Czech Republic native has 43 career singles and 41 career doubles victories.

WELCOME, MIA
Germany native Mia Mack will join the Hawkeyes for the second semester, where she has two seasons of eligibility remaining.  Mack most recently was a second-team All-West Coast Conference selection in singles and an honorable mention all-league selection in doubles at San Diego in 2023-24.  She opened her career at Miami (Fla.), where she was a four-time ACC Freshman of the Week during the 2022-23 season.  She went 20-10 in singles and 15-10 in double with the Hurricanes.