The men’s and women’s tennis teams have concluded their regular-season matchups with the WAC Championships next on the schedule.
The men’s team concluded their season two weeks ago with the matchups against Grand Canyon and New Mexico State. ACU secured the victory in both of those meetings.
“Having a young team, we’ve beaten New Mexico twice this season,” head coach Juan Nuñes said. “You just have to make the guys realize it’s always going to be hard to beat the same team three times if we happen to play New Mexico State. Just the hope they understand that you beat them twice means absolutely nothing going into that tournament.”
The Wildcats had an overall season record of 11-11, including ranked teams at the beginning of the season. These matchups included nationally ranked Oklahoma, Baylor, and TCU, where the Wildcats gained the loss but helped shape them for the rest of the season.
The men have secured the second seed in the WAC tournament with a 5-1 conference record. Their only loss was against Lamar, who secured the first seed. Despite the one loss, the men have only lost six matches in the 39 played, including sweeping Chicago State, Seattle, UTRGV and Grand Canyon.
“I’m obviously focusing on a little bit more specifics,” Nuñez said. “Now we know what the lineup is going to be, everybody’s got to submit lineups. Other than that it is really staying true to who we are and what we’ve done all semester long and it’s gotten us to this point.”
The Wildcats sit in the semifinals of the WAC tournament to pay the winner of Chicago State and New Mexico State on Saturday at 9 am in Beaumont.
The women’s team concluded their season this past weekend with a matchup against Tarleton which ended in a close loss, 3-4.
“Tarleton’s one of the best teams in the conference,” head coach Bryan Rainwater said. “They were undefeated in our division so you know for us a big confidence boost to go 4-3 with them. I think that’s a really really good place to be.”
The Wildcats secured an 8-11 overall season record playing teams including North Texas, SMU and Texas Tech, where they were swept but fought tough competition.
The women have a 2-4 conference record, giving them the eighth seed in the WAC tournament. All of the tallied losses have been close matchups, with one match as a determining factor. The Wildcat’s wins included a sweep of Lamar 7-0 and a close win of New Mexico State, 4-3.
“I feel like we have a really good mindset,” Rainwater said. “I really want us just to believe in ourselves. I think the confidence just has to be there and I keep telling the girls we’ve been trending in the right direction in the past month or two so that’s a really good place to be.”
ACU is set to play first seed Grand Canyon in the quarterfinals of the WAC tournament on Friday at 12 p.m. in Beaumont.
