The Matadors’ opening dual of the season against Cal Lutheran has been postponed.

The women’s tennis team  announced the delay in the start to their long-awaited season on Twitter 32 minutes before the match was scheduled to take place at CSUN on Tuesday.

The Athletics Department’s press release stated the reason for the postponement as “COVID-19 protocols involving Cal Lutheran.” The teams will “attempt to reschedule” at a later date.

The team remains optimistic, even with the sudden change in schedule.

“After more than a year, what’s a couple of more days!” said head coach Gary Victor in the press release. “We will have a great practice in preparation for a very good Hawai’i team.”

University of Hawai’i is set to host CSUN on March 14, which will be the first official match of the 2021 season for the Matadors.

The highly anticipated meeting between CSUN and Hawai’i will be extremely competitive due to both teams ranking high in the conference in 2020. Before national COVID-19 guidelines ended the remainder of the tournament last year, CSUN was 6-2 overall and Hawai’i finished 5-5.

CSUN and UC Riverside are the only two teams in their conference to not have participated in a match in 2021.