Written by Miguel Mendez
The Colorado College women’s tennis team spent most of their spring break playing matches in beautiful Orlando, Fla., as they continue to prepare for conference play. Schools from around the nation traveled to compete in Orlando. The Tigers took on six different schools in six days.
The Tigers arrived on March 10 and played two matches the next day. The first match was a pivotal moment for the rest of the trip as CC dominated Haverford College, sweeping them 9-0.
“Beating Haverford 9-0 after a very long travel day was a huge confidence boost. They’ve taken it to us every year I’ve been here,” said Coach Anthony Weber. “We were swarming in doubles, put volleys into great spots and never stopped attacking. It allowed us to relax a bit in singles, where we made very good decisions on balls throughout the lineup.”
The Tigers continued their success into the next two matches, beating Juanita College and Illinois Wesleyan in two more 9-0 sweeps. Team energy was high after that explosive 3-0 start to the trip.
“It not only felt good to know that our hard work really paid off, but it also motivated us to keep the intensity and momentum up throughout the rest of the trip,” said sophomore Fiona Cerf. “We’ve been working really hard both on and off the court to better our individual games as well as our team dynamic and I think that really paid off in Orlando.”
The Tigers took on University of Wyoming-La Crosse next, looking to keep their winning streak alive. Unfortunately, CC dropped four of the six singles matches to go into doubles with a 4-2 record. In doubles, Cerf and freshman Kendal McGinnis beat the 21st-ranked team in the nation, UW-La Crosse’s Bridget Bellissimo and Kimmy Mrozek. However, despite that victory and freshmen Simone Hall and Annie Zlevor winning their doubles match, the Tigers couldn’t overcome the two-point deficit. The Tigers lost a hard fought battle 4-5.
“La Crosse was a tricky match. That match, we had to play singles first, and were down 4-2 heading into doubles,” said Weber. “It put a lot of pressure on us, and we’re still a very young team. I think La Crosse’s experience in bigger matches helped save them this time.”
The Tigers shrugged off the tough loss and got right back into their winning form the next day to add another sweep to their record. The Tigers defeated Macalester College 9-0. There were strong showings from each player as not a single set was dropped. Zlevor performed extremely well as she went 6-0 in both sets.
“I am really proud of our team’s performance, as well as my own. Even though we swept the first few matches, we maintained the same amount of energy and determination throughout the entire trip,” said Cerf. “One of our team values this year is ‘we before me,’ and I think our performance in Orlando really embodied that. I got the sense we worked as hard as we did not only for ourselves in our individual matches, but for the team as a whole.”
The rest of the season consists of a couple of challenging in-state D-II opponents. After those matches, the team will travel to Texas over block break for some important matches against conference rivals Southwestern, Schreiner, and Texas Lutheran in order to determine the seeding in the SCAC tournament.
“It has a huge effect on seeding for the conference tourney,” said Weber. “The possibility of us returning to the conference championship match with an NCAA bid is on the line.”
The team has great aspirations for the rest of the season as they try to best last year’s performance and get an NCAA tournament bid.