NEW ORLEANS – The NAIA announced the qualifiers for 2026 Women's Tennis National Championship on Tuesday, and the Loyola Wolf Pack earned a spot in the field for the fourth consecutive season. The tournament runs from May 12-16 at the Mobile Tennis Center in Mobile, Alabama.
Loyola will be the No. 11 seed in the tournament, and the Wolf Pack will be taking on No. 22 seeded Oklahoma Wesleyan on Tuesday, May 12. Oklahoma Wesleyan won the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference with a perfect 12-0 conference record and a KCAC tournament title win over Bethel. The opening round match is scheduled for 1 p.m.
The winner of the match between Oklahoma Wesleyan and Loyola will move on to play No. 6 seed Southeastern on Wednesday, May 13.
The Wolf Pack's overall record currently stands at 8-7, including 4-1 in conference play. The team has been tested this season, with eight of the Pack's 15 matches in 2026 being played against teams that made the national tournament field.
At the conference tournament, six Wolf Pack players were honored on the All-Conference Teams: Micaela Ponce, Avery Frierson, and Adele Fereres made the All-SSAC First Team, while Presha Shanthamoorthi, Sofia Amodu, and Avrora Volkova all received Second Team honors.
Going into the national tournament, Fereres leads the team with a 10-2 singles record, also going 8-5 in doubles. She and Frierson are the 11th-ranked doubles team and have gone 3-1 in doubles together in the spring and 8-4 overall in the 2025-26 season after being finalists at the ITA Regional in the fall. Frierson, who is 6-5 in singles, also won two matches with Amodu and two with Juliette Finch.
Shanthamoorthi is the highest ranked Loyola player in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association singles rankings, checking in at No. 50 in the NAIA. She's second on the team in wins with a 9-4 singles record. Ponce, who has played every singles match on the top court, is ranked No. 69 in the NAIA with five wins this year.
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