Women's tennis sweeps week's competition
The women's tennis team continued their fantastic play by managing to win every single point in their last two matches against Louisiana-Lafayette and Prairie View. Because of rare showers in California this past weekend, the team postponed their trip to 60th ranked St. Mary's and 15th ranked Fresno State. Fortunately, first year head coach Elizabeth Schmidt was able to quickly schedule a match against Louisiana-Lafayette last Saturday.
The Owls used this as a tune-up match so as to not let a precious weekend go by without match play. The team dispatched the Ragin' Cajuns 7-0, running their season record up to 6-1.
With dominant doubles play from Julie Chao and Ana Guzman, the Owls showcased their aggressiveness by sweeping the doubles point and clinching the match with straight-set singles victories from still-undefeated sophomore Jessica Jackson, sophomore Varsha Shiva-Shanker, and freshman Alex Rasch.
"It was frustrating to not be able to get in quality ranked opponents this past weekend in California since those opportunities are so limited," senior Emily Braid said. "But it was still good to go to Louisiana where we played really well despite windy conditions which will help us down the road at places like Lubbock."
The Owls returned to action at Jake Hess Wednesday against a short-handed Prairie View A&M University that arrived with only five players. Defaulting the sixth singles spot, the Panthers gave the Owls the confidence of a 1-0 lead before beginning the match. The Owls continued strong play with five singles victories and a doubles point. The doubles teams both registered 8-0 wins by staying aggressive and dictating the style of play, a successful strategy that brought the Owls a 6-0 team victory.
"We played good tennis today," Schmidt said. "Our doubles was very impressive, and we only lost six games on the day. I'm very happy with the way they are coming together right now."
The Owls showcased their depth chart by withholding stars Julie Chao and Ana Guzman from the action while still managing an easy win against the Panthers.
The Owls return to action in Lubbock this weekend where they will take on the University of Arizona Wildcats and host Texas Tech Red University. Lubbock is notorious for windy conditions that are known to cause problems for most players. Had Schmidt not scheduled a match against Louisiana-Lafayette to acclimate the team to windy conditions, and had the players not performed so well under such conditions, the team may have entered the matches cautious and wary.
"Both of these matches are going to be good, hard-fought tennis matches," Schmidt said. "Arizona is not ranked right now but they have some good ranked players that will make them ranked after this year. Texas Tech we have seen individually. They both will be good battles, but I think our team is excited and we are more than prepared.
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