The tennis team racked up two wins out of four in Orlando, Florida to start up the spring leg of their season from Monday, March 20 to Thursday, March 23.
The team lost their first matchup to St. Catherine University 9-0. The Hawks then won the next two matches against Lawrence University and Hamline University by scores of 9-0 and 7-1, respectively. Part of the Hawks’ success in their two victories was third-year co-captain Carol Tyson, who won in doubles action with third-year Brittany Grandville against Lawrence, as well as winning in singles action the next day against Hamline.
“I’m really happy with how I played during spring break,” Tyson said. “I got into two tough three set matches and it definitely pushed me mentally and physically and I’m very happy with my results.”
After winning the middle two matches, the Hawks lost against George Fox University by a score of 6-3. Despite the two losses, Tyson felt the team had a good showing over spring break.
“I’m so proud of how our team performed over spring break in Florida,” she said. “Considering we only hit a handful of times indoors three weeks prior to Florida, everyone left everything out on the court and played extremely well.”
Grandville, Tyson’s doubles partner during the win against Lawrence, said she thought the long layoff from October may have impacted the team’s performance in the first match.
“I think that the team performed very well together, considering we have not had an official match since October 2016,” Grandville said. “Our first match felt a little rusty, but I still think we came out strong and definitely improved and became more comfortable on the court as the week progressed.”
Like Tyson, Grandville also won in singles action against Hamline.
“I was definitely pleasantly surprised with my game,” Grandville said. “I expected to be rustier in singles, but ended up winning three out of four of my singles matches. As for doubles, I was not ecstatic about my performance, but I will say the matches were tough and our opponents did not go down without a fight. That explains why some of my doubles matches were so close.”
With the team’s four matches in Florida over spring break, it brings their total record dating back to the fall of 2016 to 8-5. The Hawks have four matches left before concluding the season with the New Paltz Tournament on Saturday, April 22.