IRVING, Texas – The SMU Mustangs have earned the No. 1 seed for the 2023 American Athletic Conference Women’s Tennis Championship, which begins Wednesday at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida.
 
The Mustangs closed their regular season with a 4-2 win against UCF Sunday, a result that lifted SMU ahead of the Knights in the ITA Collegiate Tennis Rankings, which determine the seeds for the conference championship. SMU will enter the postseason having won four of its last five dual matches, all against nationally ranked opponents.
 
SMU will begin tournament play Thursday against the winner of Wednesday’s first-round match between Temple and Tulane.
 
UCF, which had been seeded No. 1 in each of the last four American Championships, battled through injuries and a challenging schedule that included 15 nationally ranked opponents to earn the No. 2 seed for this year’s event. The Knights will face either East Carolina or Houston in a quarterfinal match Thursday.
 
South Florida earned a bye to the quarterfinals as the No. 3 seed. The Bulls, who have reached the championship final in two of the last three tournaments, will face either Cincinnati or Memphis Thursday. No. 4-seeded Tulsa will battle No. 5-seeded Wichita State Thursday in the other quarterfinal match.
 
The women’s championship begins Wednesday, April 19, and continues through the April 22 final. The winner of the women’s championship will earn The American’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division I Tennis Championships.
 
Complete coverage of The American Tennis Championships, including live scoring of each match, can be found on the conference’s Championship Central site. Live coverage of the women’s and men’s finals will be available on ESPN+.
 
 
Championship Notes
SMU is seeded No. 1 in The American Championship for the first time in the nine-year history of the event. The Mustangs were seeded No. 2 last season, when they were edged by Tulsa in the semifinal round.
 
Memphis, which won its first American title last season, will be the No. 6 seed in this year’s event as the Tigers begin play Wednesday against Cincinnati.
 
Tulsa enters the American Women’s Tennis Championship in search of its fourth tournament title. The Golden Hurricane, seeded No. 4 in this year’s event, previously won the championship in 2015, 2016 and 2018. Tulsa is 16-4 all-time in the American Championship and has the best winning percentage in the tournament of any team (.800).
 
The No. 1 seed has won the team championship three times in the tournament’s eight-year history (Tulsa in 2016, UCF in 2019 and 2021).  The championship has been won by a No. 1 seed, a No. 2 seed, two No. 3 seeds, a No. 4 seed and a No. 7 seed.
 
The American has five teams in the most recent ITA national computer rankings. UCF is No. 39, SMU is No. 47, South Florida is No. 59, Wichita State is No. 71 and Tulsa is No. 75 in the rankings of April 11. The updated rankings, which produced the seeds for this year’s American Championship, will be made public Tuesday.
 
UCF’s Marie Mattel is ranked No. 32 in the April 11 ITA singles rankings, while SMU’s Hadley Doyle is No. 123.
 
The American has three doubles tandems ranked among the ITA’s top 90: Temple’s tandem of Maiko Uchijima/Jamie Wei is ranked No. 8, while SMU’s Taylor Johnson/Jackie Nylander is No. 70 and UCF’s Nandini Sharma/Stefani Webb is No. 73.
 
 
2023 AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE WOMEN’S TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIP
April 19-22 | USTA National Campus | Orlando, Fla.
 

First Round | Wednesday, April 19
No. 9 Temple (16-4) vs. No. 8 Tulane (7-10)	9 a.m.
No. 11 Cincinnati (8-13) vs. No. 6 Memphis (8-12)	9 a.m.
No. 10 East Carolina (9-9) vs. No. 7 Houston (13-8)	Noon
Quarterfinals | Thursday, April 20
Temple/Tulane winner vs. No. 1 SMU (13-8)	9 a.m.
No. 5 Wichita State (12-9) vs. No. 4 Tulsa (13-10)	9 a.m.
Cincinnati/Memphis winner vs. No. 3 South Florida (13-8)	Noon
East Carolina/Houston winner vs. No. 2 UCF (9-10)	Noon
Semifinals | Friday, April 21
Quarterfinal winners	3 p.m.
Quarterfinal winners	3 p.m.
Final | Sunday, April 22 | ESPN+
Semifinal winners	4 p.m.

 
all times Eastern