HUNTSVILLE \u2013 The 2025-26 season marked a breakthrough year for Sam Houston women’s tennis, as the Bearkats continued to establish themselves as a contender in Conference USA while achieving milestones that highlighted the program’s growth both competitively and academically.<\/p>\n
Under the direction of head coach Rob Hubbard<\/a>, Sam Houston posted its best Conference USA campaign since joining the league, finishing with a 4-2 conference record to secure the program’s first winning mark in CUSA play. The Bearkats carried that momentum into the CUSA Championship, where they earned the program’s first-ever conference tournament victory with a thrilling 4-3 upset of higher-seeded WKU in the opening round.<\/p>\n The victory over the Hilltoppers proved historic in more ways than one. It marked Coach Hubbard’s 98th career victory at SHSU and moved him past Chris Thompson<\/a> as the winningest coach in Sam Houston women’s tennis history.<\/p>\n Leading the way throughout the spring was Nayuma Subba<\/a>, who delivered one of the finest seasons at the top of the lineup in recent program history. Competing almost exclusively in the No. 1 singles position, Subba finished the year with an impressive 15-5 overall record, including a dominant 5-1 mark against CUSA competition. Her performance represented the strongest season by a Bearkat at the top singles position since Sahaja Yamalapalli’s perfect 18-0 campaign in 2021.<\/p>\n Among Subba’s signature victories was a straight-set win over nationally-ranked Rice standout Darya Schwartzman in late February, showcasing her ability to compete with the nation’s top talent and providing one of the program’s biggest individual victories of the season.<\/p>\n The Bearkats also saw the emergence of one of Conference USA’s brightest young talents in freshman Anamaria Kurtsikashvili<\/a>. After an impressive debut season which saw her go 11-7 overall, Kurtsikashvili earned a spot on the 2026 Conference USA All-Freshman Team.<\/p>\n Success also extended well beyond the courts as Sam Houston continued to excel in the classroom. The Bearkats earned Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) All-Academic Team honors after posting a team GPA above the required 3.20 threshold during the 2025-26 academic year. Four Bearkats also received ITA Scholar-Athlete recognition by maintaining at least a 3.50 GPA for the academic year. Christine Jevicky<\/a>, Anamaria Kurtsikashvili<\/a>, Isa Garza and Ella Fitcher<\/a> each earned the distinction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HUNTSVILLE \u2013 The 2025-26 season marked a breakthrough year for Sam Houston women’s tennis, as the Bearkats continued…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":832677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-832676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}