TOWSON, Md. – The 2020 dual season begins this weekend for the Towson University tennis team with a home match Friday and road trip Saturday.
 
Friday evening the Tigers will host Saint Francis at the Coppermine Racquet & Fitness center. On Saturday the Black & Gold will travel to Charlottesville to face No. 20 Virginia at 1 p.m.
 
Scouting the Tigers
Towson is returning strong players from last spring, including Phoebe Collins, Alexa Martinez and Themis Haliou. New to the squad are rookies Elessa Jacobs and Sarah Pospischill. In 2019 the Tigers saw 13 wins, a 7-2 record at home and 3-2 in conference action. Towson will host just seven matches at home in 2020, the first three will be played indoors at the Coppermine Racquet & Fitness center in Pikesville.
 
Scouting the Red Flash
Saint Francis is returning all upperclassmen and has one freshman on the team. The Red Flash competed in three fall events, the Bucknell Invitational, Saint Joseph's Invitational, Rocket Invitational (Toledo). Last season SFU finished 3-17 overall with a 1-14 record on the road. Members of the NEC for tennis, Saint Francis went 2-2 in conference play.
 
The Saint Francis Series
Towson and SFU have not met in the dual season since 2006 when the Tigers took a 6-1 victory. The last time these teams met on the court in general was in October of 2018 at the Blue & Gold Invitational hosted by Navy. The Tigers took two wins in singles and a win in doubles over the Red Flash during the tournament.
 
Scouting the Cavaliers
Currently ranked 20th in the nation, Virginia is coming off a weekend tournament at the Orlando Invitational and the National Collegiate Tennis Classic. UVA has plenty of experience on its roster with three seniors and two juniors, just one freshman on the squad. Last season the Cavaliers finished 18-9 with an 8-6 mark in ACC action. At home they were 11-2.
 
The Virginia Series
Saturday will be just the second time Towson and Virginia have met in women's tennis. The last meeting came in April of 2017 in Charlottesville. Virginia won 6-1, the Tigers got one singles win to save from being shutout. Saturday will be UVA's first match of the dual season.
 
Looking Ahead
Competition does not get any easier following the weekend as Towson heads to College Park to face the Terps on January 25 and travels to Morgantown, West Virginia for a match at WVU the following weekend. While in the Mountain State the Tigers will also face Toledo.

Tigers In The Community
The Towson University athletics department deems community service as one of its highest priorities to give back to the Greater Baltimore area. For the seventh consecutive year, the department exceeded 10,000 hours of community service to the Greater Baltimore region, finishing with 11,162 hours of community service in the 2018-19 academic season. Towson ranked No. 1 nationally for community service and won the 2018 National Championship for Community Service through the Helper Helper NCAA Team Works Competition. Towson had a 97% participation rate, attended 118 community service opportunities and volunteered with 19 organizations. Towson won the 2018 Volunteer of the Year Award from Susan G. Komen of Maryland.