It was another busy weekend for A&M tennis, as the men’s team traveled to Charlottesville, Virginia to compete in the ITA National Indoor Championships while the women’s team returned home to play matches against Houston and Abilene Christian.
The women’s team bounced back from a tough ITA Tournament showing with two wins over the weekend including a 6-1 over the Cougars and a 7-0 win over the Wildcats. Head coach Mark Weaver said that he like the way his girls bounced back in their play this past weekend.
“The last two days is a step forward for us,” Weaver said. “Abilene Christian in particular is a really good doubles team and we actually whacked them pretty good in the doubles — which I feel is their strength so I feel like we executed our game plan well.”
In Sunday’s match against Abilene Christian, Weaver made an impromptu lineup change between singles and doubles play, subbing out the one player Saska Gavrilovksa and inserting junior Mason Strickland into the six spot. The match was Strickland’s season debut and she did not disappoint, walking away with a 7-6 (6), 6-4 win over Andrea Crook to contribute to a complete sweep.
Strickland said that she enjoyed getting the opportunity to compete and help her team earn a victory after missing time in the fall and last season due to injury.
“I dealt with some injuries last spring and took some time off last fall and then we just jumped into travel schedule,” Strickland said. “It’s been nice to get back and get used to playing outdoors again, [and] I think all of our games is better suited for outdoor play.”
As for the men’s team, they advanced to the quarterfinals of the ITA National Indoors tournament with a win over Columbia. They then fell short in the quarterfinal match against No. 7 UCLA 2-4, marking the first blemish on a so far perfect season. The Aggies then fell to Ohio State 3-4 in their consolation match to close out the weekend before continuing their road trip.
Head coach Steve Denton said he liked the way his team approached doubles, but they had trouble continuing their aggressiveness into singles play.
“I thought we came out with really good energy in the doubles and I was really pleased with that,” Denton said. “We just didn’t have the urgency from the get go into singles play.”
The men will continue their season Friday with a chance for redemption against Ohio State while the women continue their home stand with a Saturday match-up against Stephen F Austin.