The ACU women’s tennis team split their two road games this past weekend losing to Wichita State Friday evening but bouncing back to defeat Oral Roberts Saturday night.
Coming off back-to-back home wins from the previous weekend, the Wildcats looked to keep up their momentum as they headed on the road, but the Wildcats would struggle Friday afternoon in Kansas against Wichita State losing, 6-1.
The only win of the day would come at the No.5 singles spot as Maria Cascos, freshman from Gijon, Spain would win her match 7-6, 4-6,10-5, and keep the Wildcats from facing the 7-0 sweep. Olivia Sears, freshman from Goshen, Indiana would put up a great fight at the No.3 spot barely losing 7-5, 7-6, (8-6).
“We can make a ton of excuses for Friday,” head coach Brian Rainwater said. “Travel, ice last week, all those kind of things but really just went in there on Friday and didn’t come in with energy. Wichita State’s a really really good team. We’ve beaten them the past two years but they added some transfers this year and were a lot more solid than I even realized so give them credit too. But at the same time, I don’t think our energy was nearly where it needed to be.”
After Friday’s loss, the team would have a quick turnaround and would head down to Oklahoma through the night to take on Oral Roberts the next day. Luckily for the Wildcats, they were able to bounce back with a 6-1 win against the Golden Eagles.
The team started off the day winning the doubles point thanks to Maryjoe Crisologo, junior from Surrey, British Columbia, and Cascos who won 6-4 breaking the 1-1 tie. The Wildcats remained hot during the singles matches as Cascos, Crisologo, and Sears continued to shine throughout the day winning some crucial sets in crunch time. Crisologo, who was in the No. 1 spot, rebounded after a loss in the first set 6-7, by winning the next game 6-4 and closing out a long third set 11-9.
“The response was great,” Rainwater said. “Really you could tell it just from the energy and the feel of it. Friday night to Saturday night was like two totally different teams. The biggest thing we are looking for and we understand as a young team is coming together and being unified. We know that’s gonna take a little bit of time and so to see that even if it’s just little glimpses is really solid and a bright spot for our future.”
The victory on Saturday gave the Wildcats their first road win of the season and prepares them for some of the teams they will face down the road and into the rest of the season.
“When we play Oral Roberts and we get the win, that’s more like what teams are gonna look like in the conference,” Rainwater said. “Of course you’re gonna have the top teams, but that’s more of the level we’re gonna see consistently when it gets to March and April. Playing those tough teams always gets you more prepared and just really happy with the response.”
The Wildcats will find themselves on the road again this Sunday in Fort Worth as they take on The University of San Francisco at 9 a.m. and TCU at 5 p.m.
