By Daniel Johnson, Sports Editor
The ACU women’s tennis team swept through all three of its opponents this weekend, beating Division III Southwestern University, 9-0, and conference opponents No. 21 East Central, 8-1 and No. 30 Cameron University, 8-1.
The ACU men, who played without their No. 1 Juan Nunez, went 2-1 over the weekend. ACU defeated Southwestern University and East Central 9-0 on Saturday, before losing a closely contested match to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Central Region leaders, No. 11 Cameron University, 5-4. With the weekend wins, the women’s team increased its overall record to 9-1 and are now ranked No. 6 in the ITA National Rankings. Meanwhile, the men increased their overall record to 12-5 and are now ranked No. 13 nationally.
Head coach Hutton Jones said the weekend was a good test for both teams as they continue to approach the postseason.
“We won pretty comfortably and [the other teams] did play well, even though the score shows that it was easy,” Jones said.
On the women’s side, ACU only lost two of the 27 matches they played over the weekend. Meagan Brown lost her match in the East Central match, and Dina Pavlin lost her match in the team’s match against Cameron.
In addition to the consistent play of veterans like Irene Squillaci, Aina Rafolo and Meagan Brown, Jones said he was most pleased with the way his younger players came through for the team this weekend.
Freshmen Jaclyn Walker, Natalie Friend and Lauren White won every match they played in over the weekend and Pavlin, who is a sophomore, won all of her matches except the loss against Cameron player Whitney Renfurm.
“These are quality opponents, but in my mind we shouldn’t lose a match,” Jones said. “Even though they should be competitive matches, and maybe I’m being overly optimistic, I think we
should win. I think our girls are better at each position.”
Although all three wins might have looked easy for the Wildcats, Jones said his team needs to prepare for closer matches.
“It’s not as easy as it looks, and I’ve got to convince our girls that there is going to be a day that we have a close match,” Jones said. “We just need to be comfortable in that kind of environment.”
Without an injured Nunez, the men held their own but lost a close match to Cameron, and Jones said that the weekend’s only loss might not have happened had Nunez been healthy.
