ST. PAUL, Minn. - The spring sports season is underway, and with it is the first Upper Midwest Athletic Conference Preseason Poll and Preview of 2026. Leading off is women's tennis, and the University of Northwestern is picked in a familiar spot despite returning just one member of its lineup from a year ago. The conference coaches predict the Eagles to finish in second place (21 points) in the North division, behind two-time reigning champion University of Wisconsin-Superior (25 points). UNW finished second in each of those years, and received the other first place vote.

The full UMAC Women's Tennis preseason poll and preview can be found here.

Head Coach Matt Swigart begins his 14th season as the winningest and longest-tenured coach in program history (210-114). Swigart returns just one player from last year's lineup that went 10-15 overall and 4-1 in the UMAC. Junior Aby Ross (Chico, Calif./Central) is a two-time Second Team All-Conference selection and was the February 13, 2024 UMAC North Division Player of the Week. In 2025, Ross went 11-11 in singles matches (3-1 UMAC) and 12-9 in doubles (3-1 UMAC). She is expected to be joined in the lineup by freshmen Sarah Langridge (Savage, Minn./Prior Lake) and Rein Hayashi (Kyoto-shi, Japan/Kansai Christian School). Hannah Hyttsten (Becker, Minn./Becker) and Macie Ruddy (Coon Rapids, Minn./Coon Rapids) join Ross as returning players from 2025, and will battle for lineup spots with four newcomers

Northwestern will begin its season on Saturday, January 31st in Eau Claire, Wisconsin with a triangular with Concordia-Wisconsin and UW-Stevens Point.

2026 UMAC Women's Tennis North Division Preseason Coaches Poll

Place	School	Points
1	UW-Superior (5)	25
2	Northwestern (1)	21
3	Minnesota Morris	15
4	Martin Luther	12
5	Bethany Lutheran	10
6	Crown	7