BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. – West Virginia State was picked to finish third in the 2023 Mountain East Conference women's tennis preseason poll. The league offices released the results of the vote by head coaches on Tuesday afternoon.

The Yellow Jackets are coming off a remarkable season in which they advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division II Championship. State's first major honor last year was being named regular season co-champions after posting a 5-1 record in league play. WVSU upset higher-ranked Charleston during the regular season, but came up short to West Liberty for a share of the title. 

In the postseason, State advanced to the MEC Tournament finals before the Golden Eagles avenged their regular season defeat. Nevertheless, the Yellow Jackets still qualified for the NCAA Tournament and won their regional bracket by defeating UC, 4-3, in the finals. They made the trip to the prestigious Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tournament afterwards, but were knocked out by No. 10 Hawaii Pacific.

WVSU returns three All-MEC honorees from a season ago in graduate student Chante Malo, junior Tuva Wallin and senior Maya Haidari. Malo and Wallin were All-MEC First Team selections while Haidari was named to the second team. Two second-year players also return in Julieta Beltramino and Julia Daszkiewicz. Daszkiewicz was the hero in State's NCAA regional win over Charleston while Beltramino was a sure bet to win her pairings throughout the 2021-22 season.

Head Coach Rico Williams returns for his second year at the helm and his first full year in charge of the program. Williams joined the WVSU coaching staff during the NCAA regionals last year and helped guide the team to victory. He will lead a group of mostly veteran players this year along with three newcomers.

Charleston and West Liberty were picked ahead of the Yellow Jackets in the 2023 MEC preseason poll. The Golden Eagles were chosen as the preseason favorites with six first-place votes. The Hilltoppers came in second with the remaining first-place vote. State received three less points from votes than WLU for the third-place position. All three schools shared the regular season title last season before UC went on to win the MEC Tournament. 

The other four positions in the preseason poll went to Fairmont State, Frostburg State, Davis & Elkins and West Virginia Wesleyan, in that order. 

The Yellow Jackets will begin their 2023 spring campaign at Davidson College on Saturday Feb. 4th. The full schedule can be viewed here.

2023 MEC Women's Tennis Preseason Poll
1. Charleston (6) – 36
2. West Liberty (1) – 30
3. West Virginia State – 27
4. Fairmont State – 20
5. Frostburg State – 14
6. Davis & Elkins – 13
7. West Va. Wesleyan – 7

( ) – First-place votes