Coach Wishner, Women’s Tennis 2025 Spring Program – Wake Forest Athletics

“I’m really excited about the new look ACC and the non-conference schedule for us. We will get our first look at Cal and Stanford when they visit us in April and adding two likely top 10 teams to what is always a very challenging ACC schedule will only challenge our team to be the best. Unfortunately the Blue Gray Classic event that has been a critical part of our schedule for the past few years is not happening this year so we had to add and I’m excited that we were able to add or continue to play several teams that often or win , or lose in their conference championship games to ETSU, ODU, Charlotte, Furman, Liberty, Marshall, JMU and William & Mary. We are also looking forward to our first trip to the Naval Academy where Kady Tannenbaum’s the older sister is a senior on their team. Overall, the year will be challenging. So many teams, including ours, graduated two or three of their top four players and will rely on what is a much younger, less experienced group this year. We’ve done a really great job so far this fall to help us prepare and we’re going to have to keep pushing from now until the end of the year if we want to be successful.”

Wake Forest will begin its spring schedule on Saturday, Jan. 18, against Tennessee and East Carolina at the Wake Forest Tennis Center before hosting East Tennessee State two days later.

The Deacs will have their first road contest of the season when they travel to Virginia to face Liberty (Jan. 24). January competition ends two days later as the team will host its second doubleheader of the month against Old Dominion and Elon.

February begins with a trip north to West Virginia as the Demon Deacons take on Marshall (Feb. 2). A week later, Wake Forest will return home for a three-day mini-tournament against Furman and James Madison, facing the Paladins on Friday (Feb. 7) and then the Dukes on Sunday (Feb. 9).

After their games against Furman and James Madison, the Deacs will spend the next two weeks on the road, first going to Columbia to face South Carolina and Western Carolina in the final doubleheader of the season. Wake Forest will then travel to the nation’s capital to face the Naval Academy (Feb. 21) and William & Mary (Feb. 23).

Feb. 28 marks the start of Atlantic Coast Conference competition, with road contests against Notre Dame and Louisville lined up for the opening weekend. The Demon Deacons will have their ACC opener against Virginia on March 7 as well as a home contest against Virginia Tech on March 9 before traveling to play Charlotte the following day.

The Deacs will then make the in-state trip to face two Big Four foes, facing North Carolina on March 21st and Duke on March 23rd. Wake Forest will return home for the following weekend, hosting Georgia Tech and Clemson on March 28 and 30, respectively.

The Deacs will split their time between home and road in the first two weeks of April as they take on Miami, Florida State, Stanford and California to wrap up conference play.

The ACC Championships will once again be held at Cary Tennis Park in Cary, North Carolina, this year, with the tournament scheduled for April 15-20.

Wake Forest returns six members of its 10-man roster from the 2024 season and is led by juniors Marigold Carton, Jing Liand Whitley Pate. Redshirt sophomore Crystal Blanche and sophomores Sankavi Gounder and Aubrey Nisbet return for the Demon Deacons as well. New arrivals include transfer in Kentucky Makayla Mills and Columbia transfer Anna Janalong with a freshman Briana Baldi and Kady Tannenbaum.

Fans can find an online graphic here.

 

2024 Wake Forest Women’s Tennis Highlights

• The Demon Deacons collected 15 wins in the spring and have now won double figures in 10 consecutive seasons (excluding the COVID-shortened 2020 season).
  

  • Seven of the 15 wins came against ranked teams, with three coming against top-30 teams.
  • Six of the 15 wins came against conference opponents, earning the Deacs the No. 9 seed in the ACC Championships.

• The Deacs now have eight straight NCAA tournament appearances under head coaching Jeff Wishner. Wake Forest is one of only 21 schools to achieve this feat, as well as one of six ACC institutions to do so.

  • The appearance also marked the 23rd time Wake Forest has advanced to the NCAA Tournament in program history.

• Individually, the Deacs were led by senior captain Casey Wootenwho finished with a team-best 15 doubleheader wins (22 total).

  • The Torrance, Calif., native accumulated seven wins over ranked opponents, including a career-high three-set win over South Carolina’s (No. 3) Ayanna Ackley on Feb. 17.
  • The senior also made her second straight appearance at the NCAA Singles Championships in Stillwater, Okla., finishing in the round of 16.
  • Wooten was also named to the All-ACC Third Team for Singles for the second straight season, becoming the 20th Demon Deacon to be a multiple-time All-ACC selection in his career.

• In doubles, Wake Forest once again fielded one of the top senior doubles in the country Brooke Killingsworth and graduate student Marcela Cruz.

  • The duo had 12 wins at first doubles in the spring, which also helped the Demon Deacons secure 12 doubles points.

• Not only did Killingsworth do it in doubles, but she also had the most successful singles campaign of her career, amassing 12 wins while competing at second singles.

  • She has four ranked wins this season, including a career-high win over No. 37 Abigail Rencelli of NC State.

• Freshman Sankavi Gounder capped off a stellar first year in the Old Gold & Black as she finished second on the team in doubles with 14 wins, including her first career ranking win against Tennessee’s Eleanor Molinaro (No. 100).
• Overall, the Demon Deacons had six players record double-digit singles wins in dual play this campaign.