Taylor women’s tennis wrapped up its first season back after the program relaunched this year.<\/p>\n
The purple and gray finished with a 6-14 overall record and clinched a berth in the Crossroads League tournament, which took place on April 20.<\/p>\n
\u200bAlthough their season came to an end in the CL quarterfinals, the team has high aspirations going into next year.<\/p>\n
First-year head coach Josh Grubbs faced the challenge of building a program from the ground up, with most of his players making their college tennis debuts. However, he said he was up to the challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re playing against people that have a lot more experience than us,\u201d Grubbs said. \u201cA lot of teams have a lot of seniors and international kids; it\u2019s a big adjustment, and I thought the girls did a great job.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u200bThe Trojans featured five freshmen, with one of these five, Delaney Dahl, joining the team at the start of the spring season. Dahl played No. 6 singles and split time between No. 2 and No. 3 doubles for the Trojans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u200b\u201cIt is cool to understand the game of tennis at a higher level,\u201d Dahl said. \u201cIt\u2019s cool to see the jump from high school tennis to college tennis and see how the level has improved, but I also have been able to get better at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sophomore Maddy Fuqua is intentional in building bonds to spur team culture. Fuqua held a 4-0 win playing at No. 3 singles. The double duo of Fuqua and teammate Sarah Scott, who graduated in December, went 4-3 at No. 1 doubles during the fall campaign. Fuqua still found ways to contribute to the team off the court.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u200b\u201cI really just want to continue to encourage everyone and be their biggest fans,\u201d Fuqua said., \u201cI want to support you in school, I support you in class, and I support you in your emotional life and relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u200bAs the Trojans look to build on their inaugural season, they carry high hopes for the next chapter of Taylor tennis.<\/p>\n
\u200b\u201cWe\u2019re competing, we\u2019re having good rallies, and we\u2019re outsmarting teams on points,\u201d Fuqua said. \u201cThis is super encouraging and how much further we can get with this being just the first year.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u200bGrubbs challenges his players to go into each match with a mindset to play their best no matter the numbers on the scorecards.<\/p>\n
\u200b\u201cWe talk about going out and competing no matter if they\u2019re winning or losing,\u201d Grubbs said.\u00a0 \u201cJust go out and compete hard and let the results be what they’re going for and never give up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u200bThe team has found ways to grow even in the losses and lows of the season.<\/p>\n
\u200b\u201cIt’s not about winning, it\u2019s about improving and getting better,\u201d Fuqua said, \u201cThe wins aren’t necessarily that you won the match but that you are competing and that you\u2019re winning points and hustling after every ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u200bDahl said she has seen the team grow in mental toughness throughout the spring season and also saw the team develop in their mental game.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would have less hope for what was to come at the beginning of the season, just because we weren’t as experienced,\u201d Dahl said. \u201cThe more the season went on, the more we\u2019re able to play better and have more perseverance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u200bThe Trojans will start their season differently next year, with a season of experience to build on. Fuqua said it\u2019s exciting to have a foundation, compared to a novice year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With their eyes on the future, the Taylor women’s tennis program has just begun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taylor women’s tennis wrapped up its first season back after the program relaunched this year. The purple and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-648805","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\/648805","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=648805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}