The Cougar women’s tennis team will be looking for victory on the clay courts today.

The Cougars open their season at the Boise State Invitational where they will compete against Boise State, Weber State, and Montana.

“I mean, it’s still the first match of the season,” Captain Lize Leenknecht said. “You know, you’re always a little bit nervous, but we’re ready.”

The team will play in four tournaments this fall before moving into dual match play in January. Senior Elizaveta Luzina said the tournaments help to make the team ready for spring season.

Coach Lisa Hart sees the fall tournaments as a great way to improve upon what the team has been doing in practice.

“I think the fall is just a great time to get a lot of confidence and win a lot of matches,” Hart said.

WSU comes into the Boise State Invitational as the highest ranked of the four teams. The Cougars return their top 3 players from last year, and have a large class of freshmen that are expected to contribute.

“We have four freshmen and we are we really excited about all of them,” Hart said. “They’ve improved tremendously in the last couple weeks.”

This weekend will be the first opportunity for the freshmen to get their shot against outside competition and the team will be watching the underclassmen closely.

“We want to see how the freshmen do,” Luzina said. “We are really excited for them because it’s their first match.”

Luzina has the opportunity to make history at WSU this season. The senior is 28 singles wins away from breaking the record for most career singles wins for a Cougar, currently held by Elisabeth Fournier, whose Cougar career ended in 2012. Luzina led the team in singles victories last season with 11.

Last year the team narrowly missed out on a trip to the NCAA Championships. They have that in their sights for this season.

“That’s one of the goals this year, of making it to the tournament,” Leenknecht said. “And I think with the team that we have right now, we have a really good chance of making it.”

The Cougars last made it to the championships in 2012 and have made it one other time during Hart’s 12-year coaching tenure at WSU.

“We felt like we were right there last year,” Hart said. “And we barely missed a NCAA bid.”