This last weekend was a tough one for the Fort Hays State University women’s tennis team. On Friday and Saturday, the team went to Colorado to face off against four different schools, expecting each team to be a challenge.
Sophomore Laura Johnson, who won the only doubles match of the weekend with freshman Zoie Young, felt that she personally could have done better.
“(I need to work on) pulling out the close matches, out of tight points, the 30-all points, the 5-all games, and finishing those,” Johnson said.
In doubles against Metro State, the Tigers grudgingly gave up their matches. At both the No. 2 and No. 3 positions, Fort Hays lost by only 2 points. Singles did not fare well either for the Tigers as Metro swept all the matches in straight sets and finished with a devastating 9-0 win against the Tigers.
Later that day the Tigers went up against Colorado Christian, who beat Fort Hays 3-0 in doubles play. After their losses, the Tigers won three out of six singles matches in the No. 4 through No. 6 positions. Junior Brittney Shea and Young pulled ahead of their opponents while sophomore Amy Guilliams won No. 6 by default since Colorado Christian was not able to provide a player for that position.
The next day the Tigers started the day out with an 8-1 loss to Mesa State. Young was the only win, pulling ahead of Mesa State in the No. 5 position. Later, when asked what match stood out to him most, head coach Brian Flax praised sophomore Melissa Skovira for putting “their top player on the ropes” and her easy win 6-2 on her first set against Mesa State’s Kelleen Sera.
Next against CSU-Pueblo, the Tigers took their only doubles win with No. 2 team Johnson and Young, winning 8-3. While CSU-Pueblo took the top positions in singles, Shea and Guilliams won their single matches in the No. 5 and No. 6 positions respectively.
While the weekend was very tough on the women, Flax was very supportive of his team.
“I thought we played pretty well against Metro State and Mesa State … We played very hard, and we just had some matches that came down to the end and we couldn’t finish out,” Flax said.
As Friday approaches, Flax said he feels that there are just a couple things his team needs to work on.
“Right now the one thing we’re struggling with the most is consistency on the court. Keeping the ball in play and knowing when to go for that big shot and when not to. We’ll continue the next three days to do drills to work on concentration and putting pressure on the kids,” Flax said.
Flax knows he has work ahead of him coming Friday with a home match against Newman. With a Division I transfer on Newman’s side and last year’s two close losses to them, he knows they’re a quality team but remains hopeful for a win in the future.
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