Last weekend, both men\u2019s and women\u2019s tennis kicked off their seasons in style, dominating their respective invitationals. Though both invitationals were cut a day short due to rain, the women\u2019s team were able to collect 28 wins, while the men scored 19. Their opening weekends give players confidence leading up to this weekend\u2019s Oberlin Invitational.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Yeowomen traveled to The College of Wooster to compete in the Wooster Invitational. They walked away having won 16 out of 19 total singles matches, and all 12 of their scheduled doubles matches. Although all the athletes shined, first-years Anastasia Cheng and Arina Kuzmina were particularly impressive. Cheng won her singles matches 6\u20130, 6\u20130 and 6\u20132, 6\u20130, while Kuzmina dominated 6\u20132, 6\u20130 and 6\u20130. They also won their doubles match as a pairing 6\u20130.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought everyone did really well with sticking to their strengths,\u201d third-year Eva Lopez remarked. \u201cEveryone on this team has something that they\u2019re really good at. Everyone has a different playing style [\u2026] and everyone showed that in their matches. You could see everyone trying their best game style on their opponents.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The men\u2019s team also excelled, notching 19 total wins in the Allegheny Invitational, including nine singles and ten doubles wins. Third-year Max Brose, fourth-year Zain Makada, third-year Brady Huggett, and second-years Cameron Weiss and Dash Smith all won in straight sets, with both Weiss and Smith defeating their opponents 6\u20131, 6\u20130. In the team\u2019s doubles wins, the pairing of Huggett and fourth-year Ben Tichauer collected two wins, while eight other pairings also scored wins for the Yeomen.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This impressive showing was in part due to the emphasis the Yeomen have placed on doubles matches so far this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the first couple of weeks, we focused heavily on returning serves in doubles,\u201d Head Coach Eric Ishida wrote in an email to the *Review.* \u201cI thought that work showed in our doubles sets. Moving forward, we will continue to develop our ability to hit specific serve locations on demand and become more consistent in our execution.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Though the invitationals, unlike competitions in the spring, do not name a winner, the strong performances of all players in the tennis program were encouraging. Success in the fall gives players and coaches confidence for the upcoming season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are optimistic about the weekend and our season ahead,\u201d Ishida wrote. \u201cOur goal is to steadily improve each week and continue building on the foundation we have established. Early indicators suggest that this team has strong interpersonal relationships, sound leadership, and improved physicality.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both teams look ahead to this weekend, when they will host the first Oberlin Invitational on their newly refurbished Hunsinger Courts. The invitational will involve eight teams, a mix of Division II and Division III schools, and will be an opportunity for the college community to see firsthand the teams\u2019 tennis expertise.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it will be really cool to play on our home court and show support for everyone,\u201d Lopez said. \u201cAnd maybe even get some friends to come out and support.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last weekend, both men\u2019s and women\u2019s tennis kicked off their seasons in style, dominating their respective invitationals. Though…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":898233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-898232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}