The fall portion of the tennis season has come to a close. As the leaves begin to turn color, the team begins to set its focus on the spring portion of the season.<\/p>\n
Sophomore Graham Beukelman played in the tournament, and said that participating was a good experience regardless of the results.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe results weren\u2019t the best, just because we\u2019re a first year team and we\u2019re still trying to build and get better, but definitely our future is bright, so all our guys on our team love to work hard and compete,\u201d Beukelman said. \u201cSo overall, it was a very good experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tennis head coach Grubbs said this is roughly where he thought the team would be for their first year. He interacted with some other coaches who watched matches and were surprised that players of this quality had only finished their first season.<\/p>\n
After the ITA tournament, Taylor lost their final game of the semester 1-6 to Anderson University.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had some really close matches,\u201d Coach Grubbs said. \u201cThe score doesn\u2019t look that close, but if you look at individual matches, they were all really close,\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Freshman Tyler Lane had an especially dominant game, beating Anderson Freshman Ezekiel Bergen 6-1, 6-4.<\/p>\n
Lane had played against Bergen multiple times before coming to Taylor.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe played in tournaments all throughout growing up playing tennis, so I already kinda knew what I was getting into going in,\u201d Lane said. \u201cSo I already knew my game plan going in, and I knew that if I played my game and kept my cool, and, like, just relaxed and played my game, that I would be fine.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Trojans end the fall portion of the season with a 2-3 record, but not without hope. Beukelman said team culture is a large part of their success.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust trying to build off what we built already, hard work and practice, good attitudes and our team culture, I think, has been great.\u201d Beukelman said. \u201cJust trying to build off, add on to it.That\u2019s kind of set a foundation for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taylor hopes to use the offseason to continue to adjust and prepare against their opposition. They play their next game against Ball State on February 7, which will be their first game in the second half of the season.<\/p>\n
The Taylor women\u2019s tennis team wrapped up the inaugural fall campaign last week, a year filled with new memories, team bonding and personal growth.<\/p>\n
With the fall season now in the rearview mirror, coaches and players had an opportunity to reflect on their performances at the ITA Regional Tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel pretty good about the results,\u201d said sophomore Ellie Schaufelberger. \u201cWe’re a new team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schaufelberger, who won her first doubles match of the tournament, has enjoyed a successful autumn campaign, posting a 3-1 record in both singles and doubles competition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Freshman Evy Danemayer echoed similar sentiments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was fun, like my whole team was there. So it’s cool to, like, support everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Throughout the tournament, the Trojans rallied together, lifting one another and celebrating their victories. Both players credited team chemistry for making the experience enjoyable, from the gym to the tournament court.<\/p>\n
Danemayer fell in her first singles match of the day, but bounced back and won her second. She concluded the fall with a singles record of 2-2 and a doubles record of 3-1.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Looking ahead to the offseason, Danemayer said she hopes to grow in her mental strength and confidence, admitting that there\u2019s always room for improvement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like our girls did really well,\u201d said Coach Grubbs. \u201cThey got to see what the level of competition is going to be like in our conference.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tennis team also left a great impression in their first season.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of coaches, you know, made the comment like, \u2018Oh, I can’t believe this is your first year,\u2019\u201d Grubbs said.<\/p>\n
As they turn their attention to the spring season, the Trojans prepare for the start of conference play. Taylor opens its spring season at Campbellsville University on Mar. 6 before Crossroads League action begins on Mar. 21 at home against Bethel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The fall portion of the tennis season has come to a close. As the leaves begin to turn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-228508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}