From California to Tennessee, the Bears have been dominating the competition all across the country, marching their way to a near perfect record.
The women’s tennis team has gone 16-1, one of the best seasons in school history, with its only loss coming against top-ranked Rhodes College. This weekend’s meet against Wisconsin will serve as a grand finale to a special season.
“It’s been going great,” said sophomore Rathi Mani, part of the first position doubles team that is currently ranked seventh nationally. “We’ve just been holding it together as a team, working hard and having fun.”
“We’ve been working together and supporting each other really well,” said junior Jenny Stein, ranked 35th nationally in singles. “We’re really close.”
The strong sense of team spirit has carried the women’s team to many great accomplishments already this season. They are ranked 14th nationally and enter the Midwest Regionals as a number two seed. Their record of 16-1 includes a successful road trip to California over Spring Break and many decisive victories over teams closer to home such as DePauw University, Principia College and Nebraska Wesleyan. Even the Bears’ 3-5 loss to Rhodes College on March 23rd was closely contested; most of those matches were lost on tiebreakers.
The Bears also credit their success to the depth of the team and strength at every position. According to Stein, the top six players (Stein, Kacie Cook, Shilpa Reddy, Laura Greenberg, Kat Copiozo and Sara Kabakoff) are all close in ability.
“You can count on any position to win,” said Stein. “And every position is winning.”
“From one to six, we have really strong players who are really consistent,” said Mani.
Another sign of WU’s depth is evident in its doubles positioning. Whereas most schools have their number one and two players together in the top spot, the Bears are talented enough to mix and match doubles teams and still be successful.
While Mani points to doubles as one of the weaker elements of the team, she insists that they are still improving and working hard.
“Our doubles is where we’re working,” said Mani. “We’re trying to be more aggressive and get them in the first three games.”
WU will face Kenyon and Luther Colleges at regionals this weekend, but the true test will come against top-ranked Gustavus Adolphus, whom they have yet to meet on the court. WU’s performance at this weekend’s regional tournament is extra important since the two top finishers will secure home court advantage for the opening rounds of the national tournament.
Nationals are being held at WU this year on May 11th, which means that many of the matches may conflict with graduation ceremonies. Before the women can think about these problems, however, they must focus on the present. In two weeks, they travel to Case Western Reserve for the UAA Championships, where they will face rival Emory. Emory is ranked second nationally and has a long-standing rivalry with the Bears.
“We’ve never beaten Emory,” said Stein. “That would be amazing if we could beat them.”
“This year we’re hoping to beat them,” said Mani. “It’ll be close, but I think we have a stronger singles line-up.”
The WU women are enthusiastic about the future of their season. Aside from their chance to succeed as a team, Stein and other singles players, along with a few of the doubles teams, have a shot of making individual Nationals as well.
With this close-knit squad, though, team goals always come first.
“I’m pretty sure we’ll be at Nationals,” said Mani. “We’re just going to take it round by round. We’ve never won the first round, so that’s our goal, and then we’ll take it from there.”
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