ACC Championships Third Round
No. 8 seed (#25) SMU (15-6, 7-5 ACC) vs. No. 9 seed (#33) Stanford (12-9, 7-5 ACC)
Thursday, April 16 • 2:30 p.m. CT
Cary, N.C. • Cary Tennis Park
Watch • Live Scores • SMU Mobile App
SETTING THE SCENE
• No. 8 seed SMU will take on No. 9 seed Stanford in a rematch of the regular-season finale, when the Mustangs defeated the Cardinal 4-1 in Dallas.
• The Mustangs look to win their first ACC Championship match after joining the league in 2024.
• The winner of Thursday's matchup will face No. 1 seed and regular season Champion Virginia on Friday at 2:30 pm CT in the Quarterfinal round.
• SMU concluded the regular season as winners of six of its last seven matches.
THE LAST MATCHUP
• SMU Women's Tennis concluded the regular season with a 4-1 win over No. 47 Stanford (11-9, 7-5 ACC) Sunday afternoon at the Styslinger/Altec Tennis Complex.
• The Mustangs improved to 15-6 overall and 7-5 in their second season in the ACC, after a 4-8 record in conference a year ago.
• SMU won its 17th doubles point of the season, winning on courts one and three. The court three pair of Ellie Mireles and Addison Comiskey came back to defeat Stanford's Sein Myoung and Morgan Shaffer 7-5. No. 21-ranked Amelie Van Impe and Caroline McGinley clinched doubles for the Mustangs with a 7-6(6) win over Stanford's court one pair.
• After a default for Stanford to give the Cardinal a point, No. 59 Amelie Van Impe put the Mustangs back in front with her second consecutive ranked win, defeating No. 32 Monika Ekstrand, 6-4, 7-6(3). Soon after, SMU's Addison Comiskey continued her hot streak of play, defeating Tianmei Wang, 6-2, 7-6(3) on court four. The win extended her streak of victories to seven straight matches and marked her first match and first win on court four.
• Freshman Ellie Mireles clinched the match for SMU, the first clinch of her career. Mireles defeated Stanford's Sein Myoung, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 to give the Mustangs a 4-1 win.
WINNING STREAKS
• Addison Comiskey enters the postseason on a seven-match winning streak. Her last non-victory was over a month ago.
• Amelie Van Impe also holds a lengthy streak, as she is a winner of six straight matches, the last two being against ranked opponents.
ACC WEEKLY AWARD
• The SMU women's tennis team has earned eight ACC weekly honors in 2026, led by Amelie Van Impe, who has earned ACC Freshman of the Week four times and Player of the Week twice.
• Van Impe collected two ranked singles wins over the weekend to end the regular season. She first defeated No. 13-ranked Berta Passola Folch from Cal, 6-2, 6-2 on Friday and then beat No. 32 Monika Ekstrand of Stanford, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) in Sunday's regular season finale.
• Van Impe is now 4-2 against ranked players in singles in her first semester on the Hilltop. She has finished the regular season 12-3 overall, 7-2 in ACC play and has won six straight decisions.
• The Belgium native also went 2-0 in doubles play against Cal and Stanford, winning 6-3 against the Golden Bears' court one pair and 7-6 (8-6) over the Cardinal's court one duo.
ITA RANKINGS
• The SMU court one doubles team of Caroline McGinley and Amelie Van Impe enters the ACC Championships at No. 22 nationally. The duo is 15-2 this season, while Caroline McGinley is 18-2 in doubles this spring.
• Van Impe leads the Mustangs at No. 27 in singles, while Sophie Llewellyn also represents SMU in the ITA rankings for singles at No. 85 this week.
• Caroline McGinley and Ellie Mireles remain ranked as a pair in doubles, despite not playing as a pair since the second weekend of the season. They come in at No. 77 this week.
• As a team, SMU jumped from No. 30 to No. 25 after the weekend results against Cal and Stanford.
• Stanford as a team comes in at No. 33 and has three ranked singles players, led by No. Valerie Glozman. The Cardinal have no doubles pairs ranked in the latest ITA rankings.
• Arina Gamretkaia and Ozlem Uslu represent Virginia Tech in the ITA rankings, coming in at No. 54 in the April 14 edition of the rankings.
MAKING NATIONAL NOISE
• Wichelen, Belgium, native, Amelie Van Impe made national noise on March 1 in the Mustangs' matchup against No. 3 North Carolina with a commanding win over the then-No. 1-ranked player in the ITA, Reese Brantmeier, 6-1, 6-2. The win came after nearly defeating the No. 22–ranked player from Duke on court one two days prior, in a match that went unfinished despite her 7-5, 2-6, 5-4 lead.
• The win propelled Van Impe from unranked to No. 49 in the following ITA singles poll.
• Van Impe has been strong since joining the Mustangs in late January. The freshman is a combined 23-5 on the season in doubles and singles, with a 9-2 record in court one and a 13-2 record in doubles.
LLEWELLYN ADVANCES IN NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
• In her NCAA Championship debut, Llewellyn advanced to the second round of the tournament by defeating Texas A&M's Violeta Martinez 4-6, 6-2, 6-1, before falling to eventual champion Reese Brantmeier in three sets in her next matchup.
• Llewellyn punched her ticket to the NCAA Singles Championships in November after reaching the semifinal round of the ITA Sectional Championships on Saturday.
• Llewellyn became the first Mustang to qualify for the NCAA Individual Championships since Marta Lesniak did so in 2011.
• Llewellyn finished the fall season with a 10-4 record.
NEW LOOK MUSTANGS
• Coach McKenna and staff brought six newcomers to the 2026 roster, including five true freshmen and one transfer ahead of her first season on the Hilltop.
• Llewellyn and McGinley are the only two returners to the program from the previous season, while Natalie Stasny transferred in after two seasons at Michigan State.
LET THE MCKENNA ERA BEGIN
• Coach McKenna begins her tenure at SMU after serving as the head coach at Wisconsin since 2017.
• McKenna's tenure at Wisconsin was defined by a dramatic program turnaround. When she arrived in the fall of 2016, the Badgers were coming off a 4-16 season and a winless Big Ten campaign. In her second year, Wisconsin began to show progress, and by her third season in 2018-19, the team posted an 18-6 record, finished second in the Big Ten at 9-2, and earned its first NCAA Tournament berth since 2005.
• By 2023, the Badgers had achieved one of the best seasons in school history: 20 victories (first in 25 years), a No. 11 national ranking at their peak (highest since 1996), and a season-ending No. 22 ITA ranking, along with the program's first NCAA Tournament win since 2002. Under McKenna's leadership, Wisconsin evolved from the bottom of the Big Ten into a nationally respected contender, consistently competing against and defeating top 25 programs.
• Over the last three seasons, McKenna has led the Badgers to a record of 58-21, including three straight NCAA Round of 32 appearances. Last season, McKenna coached Maria Sholokhova to a 2024 Women's ITA All-American Singles Championship, becoming the program's first All-American since 1998 in 2025.
• McKenna and Sholokhova became the first coach-player duo, men's or women's, to both win the ITA All-American Singles Championship.
