Men and women’s tennis had a tough weekend on the road, resulting in only one win for the women’s team against the University of Texas at San Antonio.
For the women, they head back to Abilene 1-4 on the season, featuring the 4-3 narrow win against the Roadrunners on Jan. 22.
“Overall, I’m happy with our matches this weekend”, said assistant coach Bryan Rainwater. “We just got off to a slow start, they were ready and we weren’t early in the games. This road trip was hard physically, but we just have to stay patient and know that this tough early schedule was made for a reason.”
Now that the Wildcats are beginning a home-court stretch for the next three games, Rainwater wants the team to continue to build on its confidence, especially by leaning on the play of Claire Fisher, a sophomore from Flint.
“The potential is endless”, said Fisher. “It is still really early. We just got to continue to work out some kinks, and the sky is the limit for us.”
Claire and her sophomore teammate from Mexico City, Mexico, Andrea Guerrero, led the way for the Wildcats to close out the needed victories in singles. Going forward, ACU searches to find momentum early in matches, while leaning on their playmakers late in matches to steer the tide.
As the men are now back from their weekend trip to Waco, they come back to campus with fuel to grab their first win of the season. The Wildcats lost a close match 4-3 against Boise State and were shutout 7-0 against the second-ranked team in the nation, Baylor.
While ACU struggled to maintain their rhythm with the singles matches against Baylor, they showed several positive signs of life against Boise State. The energy and competitiveness the Wildcats brought, led by Daniel Morozov, a freshman from Joliet, Illinois, were the difference makers from weekend one to weekend two.
“We still bring energy and effort”, said assistant coach Taylor Rodgers. “Baylor was a tough hill to climb, Boise was a match we can win, we were in there, but we just have to embrace those moments and seize them.”
Rodgers also highlighted how happy he was with the compliments he and his team received this past weekend on the team’s same, but different attitude.
“We had the same officials and line judges as last weekend”, Rodgers said. “We lacked energy and competitiveness last week, but the officials and judges even noticed that now with even the same exact group, we were different with the energy, competitiveness, and effort the guys brought to the matches this week.”
The men look to continue to build on their team intangibles to grab their first win of the season against TCU on Jan.27 in Forth Worth, and against Dallas Baptist on Jan. 29 in Abilene. The women begin their three-game home stretch against Angelo St. on Jan. 27, DBU on Jan. 29, and Tyler on Jan. 30.
