{"id":403771,"date":"2026-01-12T02:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T02:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/403771\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T02:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T02:34:08","slug":"womens-tennis-hopes-to-bring-discipline-to-upcoming-spring-season-the-crimson-white","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/403771\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s tennis hopes to bring discipline to upcoming spring season \u2013 The Crimson White"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"An<\/a> <\/p>\n

An Alabama women\u2019s tennis player walks through the stadium during the 2024 Roberta Alison Fall Classic.<\/p>\n

Alabama women\u2019s tennis is set to play its spring season opener on Friday, facing off against North Alabama and Jackson State in a doubleheader.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have a lot of girls that are very excited for the season, and they\u2019re ready to compete,\u201d head coach Jonatan Berhane said. \u201cThey\u2019re hungry, they\u2019re motivated, and not making the NCAA\u2019s last year is a bigger carrot in front of them that they\u2019re trying to chase.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alabama concluded its 2025 spring season with a 13-13 overall record and a 4-11 mark in SEC play, falling short of qualifying for the NCAA tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Performing at a high level to withstand SEC competition is on Alabama\u2019s checklist for this spring season in hopes of making the NCAA.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the toughest conference in the country. You have 7 teams in the top 10, if you look at the universal tennis rating, so it\u2019s about staying disciplined, competing extremely hard, and being able to sustain that for a long period of time,\u201d Berhane said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last spring, doubles shone through as one of Alabama\u2019s consistent strengths amidst a tough season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maria Andrienko, paired with Maria Martinez Vaquero, who has since graduated, consistently put up strong doubles performances, ending with a 9-3 record.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and Maria just had our chemistry. She would set me up perfectly, and I had the opportunity to close the points,\u201d Andrienko said. \u201cSome of the girls that are already on the team have that type of skill, so I am sure that this is going to be a better season with doubles than the last one.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

With Alabama only having three returners for this spring season \u2014 senior Maria Andrienko, senior Klara Milicevic and sophomore Zara Larke \u2014 the team has been almost completely reset.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Five new players, one transfer from NC State and four freshmen, have been welcomed to the team to fill in the remaining spots.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Four of the five newcomers competed in the fall while representing Alabama. Freshman Karla Bartel competed in the International Tennis Federation circuit instead, making this spring her first season in crimson.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Along with new players, the team also welcomed a new assistant coach in the fall, Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar. Most recently, she was an assistant coach at Texas, where she helped lead them to the NCAA super regionals while putting up a 41-17 record.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite a younger, fresher team, Andrienko said she doesn\u2019t really have to take on \u201cthat big of a role\u201d in regard to leadership and describes her teammates as \u201cmature.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey know what they\u2019re doing, they know why they\u2019re here, so our team is maybe young, but it\u2019s really strong,\u201d Andrienko said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Alabama women\u2019s tennis player walks through the stadium during the 2024 Roberta Alison Fall Classic. Alabama women\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-403771","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\/403771","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=403771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}