LUBBOCK, Texas – After starting off the regular season with a victory, the Sun Devil women's tennis team, who recently moved up to No. 21 in the ITA Rankings, enters the ITA Kick-Off Weekend as the No. 3 seed at the Texas Tech Invitational on Saturday.

The four-team tournament features No. 13 Texas Tech, No. 16 South Carolina and unranked UC-Santa Barbara, with the winner of the weekend heading to the ITA Women's Indoor Championships next week. The Devils (1-0) open up against the Gamecocks (3-0) at 3 p.m. (CST) on Saturday.

"The girls are excited about it and they know it's basically a mini NCAA tournament," said head coach Sheila McInerney. "I think it's a good preview for that. It's a really good regional and we always try to play in a tougher regional. We just think it's better and we get better out-of-conference teams."

This past season, South Carolina – then-ranked No. 13 -- hosted an NCAA Regional where they lost in the regional championship match to Georgia Tech.

Through the first month of the season, South Carolina has defeated Furman, North Florida and Florida A&M thus far by a combined 14-1 (6-1, 4-0, 4-0).

The lady Gamecocks feature four players in the top-100 preseason rankings, with another at No. 122 and 125. Sophomore Ingrid Gamarra Martins holds the best ranking at No. 16, after finishing the 2016 season at No. 55. Her rookie year, she finished 23-11 on court two and 26-9 in doubles in route to being named to the SEC All-Freshman Team.

Newcomer Mia Horvit from Palm City, Florida comes in at No. 62 in the rankings, while sophomore Paige Cline sits at No. 72.

In doubles, Hadley Berg and Cline started the season as the only Gamecock ranked duo with a pre-ranking of No. 39 – just three spots behind No. 36 Kelley Anderson and Savannah Slaysman.

"They're actually better than they were a year ago, so we're going to have to play well," said McInerney. "We're really looking forward to it. The whole idea is to go down there, compete hard and try to play as well as we can."

Under McInerney, the Devils are 3-0 all-time versus South Carolina since 1985.

First serve is set for 3 p.m. CST/2 p.m. MST at the McLeod Tennis Center. Live results can be followed along at TexasTech.Statbroadcast.com.