WVU head coach Miha Lisac, in his eleventh season with the Mountaineers, did something he never had before in 2024, that being coach a winning WVU Tennis team.
With a final record of 15-13, Lisac’s Mountaineers performed as well as they ever had last spring. Marked by an 11-1 start, which was a program best since 1986, and a 3-10 conference record that was WVU’s best as a member of the Big 12, WVU Tennis may not have turned heads nationally, but it did make history within the program.
Just one season later, though, the Mountaineers have low expectations to prove themselves against.
In a release by the Big 12 on Tuesday, West Virginia ranked 15th of 16 teams in the conference’s preseason poll, ahead of only Cincinnati. WVU finished 11th of 14 teams in 2024.
As the Mountaineers look to build on last season, they will be without several key players. All three of WVU’s top singles seeds, former Middle Tennessee State player Love-Star Alexis, French freshman phenom Maya Bordereau, four-year Mountaineer Momoko Nagato, are absent from WVU’s roster this year. Camilla Bossi, WVU’s top player who balanced a collegiate career with a professional one last season, has also officially departed from the university.
Left on the court for 2025 are seniors Michaela Kucharova, Tatiana Lipatova, and Catherine Wassick and junior Maja Dodik. All have spent their entire collegiate careers at WVU, aside from Dodik, who redshirted as a freshman at Houston.
Each returner except Lipatova represented WVU in fall play last semester. In a small sample size, Wassick finished 0-2 in singles while Kucharova went 4-5 and Dodik went 5-5.
Both entering this season with experience in doubles from the last, Kucharova and Dodik shined as a pair, going 7-2 this fall. The pair is expected to play on the top doubles court for WVU this spring, with Kucharova experienced as the top doubles seed from last season alongside Nagato and Dodik turning heads early in the year on Court 2 with Bordereau.
Senior Drake transfer Mille Haagensen and true freshman Laura Villanueva Morillo joined the Mountaineers in the preseason tournaments. Haagensen finished a team-best 7-6 in singles play this fall while Villanueva Morillo finished 5-5. The pair went 5-3 as a team in doubles.
Rounding out WVU’s new-look roster for 2025 is three-time French national team member Julie Bousseau, who comes to WVU as a graduate student playing collegiate tennis in America for the first time.
As the new squad of Mountaineers look to take a stand for their program this spring, they will have 11 nonconference matchups to prepare for Big 12 competition. From there, 13 regular season Big 12 matches will remain ahead of the Big 12 Championships, at which lost 4-2 to No. 36 Baylor last season.
WVU Tennis kicks off its spring season at home against Duquesne on Saturday, Jan. 18. Play will begin at 10 a.m. at Summit Tennis Academy.
Photo from WVU Tennis
