The women’s tennis team has struggled to find results as a team, but has steadily improved in individual matches. Despite falling to nationally ranked Kenyon College (10-5, 1-0 NCAC) on Monday, the Scots (4-11, 0-2 NCAC) have continued to improve.
Co-captain Brenna Hart ’10 said that while Kenyon is a highly skilled team, the Scots performed better this year than last. Hart added that “the results are not reflective of the individual performances.”
The Ladies swept through the Scots in singles after escaping the three doubles matches with three victories. The first doubles duo of Elissa Lauber ’10 and Kelsey Jenkins ’12 performed well and, despite the loss, pushed their match to 8-5, a result two games better than the other Wooster pairs.
Hart said that overall “doubles performed particularly well, especially the first doubles [Lauber and Jenkins]” given the level of play that Kenyon brings to the court.
The singles matches were highlighted by the impressive performance of Lauren Grimanis ’12.† Grimanis fell in straight sets, as did the rest of the Scots, but managed to extend the first set to a 7-5 defeat before challenging in the second set which eventually ended 6-3 in favor of Kenyon’s Anna Becker.
Ashley Stockwell ’12 also put up a fight in singles against Kenyon. Despite falling in straight sets, Stockwell pushed Amanda Polster to a 6-3 and 6-2 result, the second most competative on the singles side for the Scots.
Hart added that a positive impact from Monday’s match was that “as a whole, everyone played a lot better in their second sets” making for much more competitive tennis.
Against the skilled Kenyon team, the Scots are optimistic that the results could help down the road. “We haven’t played that good of a team in a while, but it will definitely help us prepare for the teams we will be playing in the final couple of weeks,” said Hart.
The men’s team returned from this weekend’s Great Lakes Colleges Association Tournament [GLCAs] with a win over Earlham College (4-9, 0-4 NCAC) and losses against nationally ranked Hope College and Calvin College (9-6) who challenged Carnegie Mellon University, the eventual winner of the tournament.
Though the Scots struggled to deal with the powers of Hope, the team responded on Friday with a quality win over Earlham which was clinched by the individual victory of Co-captain Stephen Conroy ’10.
The 7-2 loss on Saturday to Calvin was deceptive because of tactical decisions made by the opponent which Conroy explained as “stacking.”
Calvin moved their first position player down to the fourth slot and had their second player compete in the third position as part of a the stacking strategy. “By doing that they sacrificed the first and second positions for almost guaranteed wins at three, four and five,” explained Conroy.
Despite finishing the tournament with a 1-2 record, the Scots have seen improvement and chemistry in their doubles matches. The duo of Conroy and Matt Mandell performed well in all three matchups including an 8-0 sweep of Earlham. “The doubles teams are all pretty secured and all three are playing well together,” said Conroy.
The Scots will travel to face conference foe Allegheny College (8-8, 0-0 NCAC) tomorrow at 1 p.m. in what Conroy calls “the biggest match for the rest of the season,” before returning home to face Kenyon on Sunday at 2 p.m. and Denison University (14-2, 4-0 NCAC) on Wednesday.