The men’s and women’s tennis teams continued their winning streaks this past Saturday at the Eager Tennis Center right at home in Abilene with a doubleheader sweep over New Orleans. The men dominated with a 6-1 win over the Privateers, while the women closed the deal at 4-3 with Lucile Pothier winning the match-clinching point at the No. 2 line.
The ACU women started off strong with a sweep of doubles. The team of Pothier and Whitney Williams as well as Autumn Crossnoe and Jordan Henry defeated their opponents both with a score of 6-2, while Sarah Adams and Erin Walker shut out their competition, 6-0.
UNO snapped back with singles victories over Walker, Williams and Adams to tie up the overall score 3-3. All eyes fell on Pothier at the No. 2 line as she held off New Orleans’ Anja Luethi, 6-4, 6-4. Pothier clinched the match for her 10th consecutive victory. The junior player has recently returned from an injury and remains undefeated in conference play.
“I will not say it is easy to stay loose and calm while you know that your match will bring a victory or not to your team,” Pothier said. “The girls were there to cheer in the good moments and it helped a lot.”
On the men’s side, the Wildcats claimed the doubles point with victories at the No. and 3 lines, both posting a 6-1 win. All of the singles matches were a fight to the finish, but the men came through and defeated UNO in five out of six of those match-ups.
Sophomore Josh Sheehy came back from being down, 5-7, in the first set to scoring two sets of 6-2 to defeat UNO’s Jeffrey Hsu, while his freshman brother, Jonathan, edged out Federica Boscarino at No. 2, 6-4, 7-5. This season, Josh has posted 13 victories at No. 1 and is currently on a six-match winning streak.
Junior Hunter Holman also claimed his 13th match of the spring season, defeating his opponent, 6-1, 7-6, at No. 4. Players Nico Agritelley and Henry Adams posted three-set comebacks at No. 3 and No. 5, respectively.
Head coach Hutton Jones said the team continues to grow in their competitiveness towards to goal of winning and making their mark in conference, and the match up against UNO was a great example of resilience on both the men’s and women’s sides.
“As Billie Jean King said, pressure is a privilege, and we talk about how the fun of tennis is the pressure, if you can handle the challenge of it being fun,” Jones said. “Most normal people wouldn’t handle it well, but high level competitors thrive on having to come up with good shots when they have to. I think our players handle it well.”
The men are back in action the weekend of April 7 and 8, competing against Lamar and Midwestern State, while the women will be on the road this coming weekend at Northwestern State and Stephen F. Austin.
