Photo: Andrew Zienty
This past weekend Illinois Wesleyan University Tennis started their season on the road in St. Louis, MO where they faced off against the University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy. Both teams were victorious in their matches with records of 6-1.
The men’s team, led by Coach Sam Totten, earned wins in matches two through six along with wins from numbers two and three doubles.
Freshman Vishnu Anagani said “a win for us is huge. It gets us hyped and ready for the upcoming season.”
“Although this team wasn’t as good as the teams we will be playing the rest of the year we still have work to do. Learning from mistakes from these ‘easy’ matches will help us not make those mistakes in a higher level match” Anagani said.
The CCIW has not released a schedule for the spring, but players will most likely be competing against conference teams similar to any other year.
For now, the team will continue to look for schools that will play in matches so they can work on preparing for conference, even if the competition is not as strong.
“This definitely helps us prepare for conference play because any match will allow us to critique our game.
“As a team, we need to work on keeping the negative energy off the court and coming to practice with the same mindset” Anagani said.
Even after a win like this, the team is working on improving to compete on a higher level.
“Even after a win like this, the team is working on improving to compete on a higher level.”
The women’s team saw similar success, led by coach Megan Rozboril, earning wins in match one, matches three through six and matches two and three from doubles.
Junior Ashley Mohr said “this match will help prepare us for our season in spring. Playing now gives us an opportunity to build confidence.”
“Tennis is a mental sport. As a team, we could definitely work on keeping in touch with our mental game and continue to encourage each other” Mohr said.
While there is no future match on the schedule, both teams were able to take away positives from their match this past weekend and find things to work on for possible future play.
While they await scheduling of another competition, the teams continue to practice five days per week.