SAN DIEGO – San Diego Women's Tennis kicks off the 2025 dual season this weekend with hidden duals in Austin, Texas, but third-year head coach Nadia Abdala's revamped Toreros officially start the season on Friday, Jan. 17 at home against LSU.
 
The Toreros were picked to finish second in the WCC Preseason Poll on Monday, Jan. 6, with one first place vote, while seniors Kailey Evans and Claudia de las Heras were named preseason all-conference. USD was also receiving votes in the ITA's top-25 preseason poll.
 
Abdala and her staff have made four additions to her squad, including three mid-year signees to join the team at the Hogan Tennis Center on America's Most Beautiful Campus. All the while, experienced and ranked seniors de las Heras and Evans return, as does sophomore Kristina Nordikyan who has developed exponentially since first coming to San Diego.
 
The 2025 dual schedule has the Toreros slated for 17 nonconference matches, six as a part of the WCC, 11 total at the home confines of the Hogan Tennis Center and several against nationally ranked and prominent teams.
 
The Team
Redshirt Senior Kailey Evans is coming off a tremendous fall that saw her reach the second round of the NCAA Individual Championships, falling to the eventual national champion in three sets. The Ennis, Texas native achieves a career-high ITA ranking of No. 31.
 
Senior Claudia de las Heras, the ITA Southwest Region Most Improved Player and All-WCC First Teamer in 2023, missed most of the fall individual season due to injury, but returns to the lineup in the Spring. De las Heras and Evans combine to make the nation's 38^th-ranked doubles team.
 
Freshman Hannah Read highlights the group of four newcomers, the only one that spent the fall competing in ITA events representing USD; a tremendous fall that saw her start 9-1, finish 10-5 and already garner at national ranking at No. 105.
 
Also joining the team as international freshmen are Anni Puls, from Bonn, Germany, and Gabby Gregg from Sydney, Australia. Puls achieved a highest ITF Juniors rank of No. 107, is the current WTA singles 1123 and has a W15 doubles title under her belt. Gregg is a top-10 Australian female junior, a winner of a Junior ITF and NSW Junior Female Athlete of the Year nominee with a career-high ITF junior ranking of No. 191.
 
Brionna Nguyen is a junior transfer from UC Irvine, where she played No. 1 singles and doubles and was a team captain as a sophomore. Sophomore Kristina Nordikyan has shown continued growth, going 11-4 in fall singles matches.
 
The Schedule
Following a season-opening weekend home event hosting vote-receiving LSU and UC Santa Barbara, the team will hit the road for the first time for the ITA Kickoff Weekend in Los Angeles, on Jan. 24-25 facing Auburn in the first round.
They will then travel to face defending national champs Texas A&M on Jan. 31 and a neutral site match in Houston against Arizona on Feb. 1.
 
The ITA National Team Indoor Championships will take place from Feb. 7-11. From there, the Toreros go on a six-match, near month-long homestand, hosting Denver, Baylor, Hawaii, Arizona State, Washington and UCLA on February weekends into March.
 
On March 7, the Toreros travel down I-8 to face intra-city rival San Diego State before going north to take on Southern California for potentially a second tune on March 9. A road match at California in Berkeley rounds out the non-conference schedule.
 
On March 21, USD hosts Portland and a week later LMU to start conference play. A road trip to the Bay Area sees San Diego take on Saint Mary's and Pacific on April 5-6. On Saturday, April 12, the Toreros host league-favorite by just seven points over San Diego, Pepperdine in what could be a pivotal conference home match. USD rounds out the regular season on the road at Washington State on April 18.
 
The West Coast Conference Tournament is slated to take place from April 24-26 in America's Finest City on San Diego State's campus. The NCAA Tournament first and second round begins on May 2 while the 2025 NCAA Team Championships – the Elite Eight and on – will take place in Waco, Texas.