By Brian Roe, Sports Writer
After playing against some tough competition last weekend, the men’s and women’s tennis teams returned to Abilene with additional match-play under their belts.
Head coach Hutton Jones traveled with the women’s team to Kentucky and assistant coach John Walker traveled with the men to Arlington.
The Lady Wildcats played last weekend in Lexington, Ky., at the Kentucky Invitational. ACU was the only Division II team competing in the tournament that featured top Division I teams Kentucky, Purdue, Notre Dame, Middle Tennessee State and Ohio State.
ACU had several singles wins in the tournament with wins including the following: junior Joy Israel over Purdue’s Paula Schmidt 6-2, 6-1; junior Summer Beesley over Ohio State’s Meredith Vincent 6-1. 4-6, 6-1; sophomore Lauren Yarbrough defeating Purdue’s Schmidt 6-1, 6-3 and Ashley Hawk over Ohio State’s Vincent 6-2, 6-4.
The combinations of Israel and Yarbrough along with Taylor and sophomore Colleen Reynolds produced wins in doubles, as well.
The women will compete this weekend at the New Mexico State Invitational in Las Cruces, N.M.
In men’s action, the Wildcats had a busy weekend playing in the Texas-Arlington Invitational. ACU got things started in Arlington at 10:30 a.m. Friday when it took on Oral Roberts in team singles action, followed by a 12:30 p.m. match against players from Wichita State and Oklahoma.
Doubles started at 4:30 p.m. against Texas-Pan American, followed by another doubles match at 6 p.m. against Oral Roberts.
Saturday saw ACU taking on Pan-American at 8:30 a.m. in singles, followed by a 12:30 p.m. match against Lamar. ACU then played Centenary in doubles at 6 p.m.
The Wildcats will close out the tournament Sunday at 8:30 a.m. with a doubles match against Wichita State/Oklahoma.Senior men’s player Trent Broach said this tournament was more for practice than actual match play.”This tournament was almost like a scrimmage,” Broach explained. “It wasn’t a full duel with all the flights, but we just played mock duels against several different teams. We mainly played in this tournament to get some extra matches in and some more practice.”Broach said he didn’t play the entire weekend because he had a minor ankle injury.
Sophomore Casper Steencamp echoed what Broach said.
“It was a very laid back tournament,” Steencamp said. “We didn’t always play the whole match out. It was basically just to work more on our game and play more matches.”
With the exception of Steencamp, the men’s team will complete the fall season next weekend at the Tyler Invitational. Steencamp, who won the men’s regional, will play for the ITA national championship at the end of October.
