DC Women’s Tennis: Season Review
Defiance College Women’s Tennis team recently ended regular season play to Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) competitor, Mount St. Joe. Overall, Defiance College finished seventh in the HCAC. The Yellow Jackets finished with an overall record of 3-13 and a record of 2-6 in Conference play.
Victories include a 6-3 performance over Lourdes University (Sylvania, OH), a 6-3 win over Manchester University (Manchester, IN), and a 9-0 win over Earlham College (Richmond, IN).
Throughout the season, the team faced several challenges. According to Junior, AJ Brenemen, the biggest challenge of the season was “facing inexperienced” and “learning how to work with a different team dynamic,” This season’s roster consisted of a freshman, sophomore, two juniors, and two seniors. Out of the six rostered players, only three athletes had actually played tennis before. The inexperience caused the team to turn their focus on learning how to compete within the competition in the HCAC.
During practices, the Yellow Jackets focused on an abundance of skills. According to Freshman, Destiny Oshodin, “Practices were very fun. We worked on serving, hitting cross-court shops and down the lines, volleys, and overhead shots.” The Yellow Jackets also worked on learning how to keep the ball in play and practiced playing in doubles.
The skills covered at practices allowed for the team to learn, grow, and implement them into gameplay. The grit and difficulty of practices and matches also led the team to learn how to face adversity. The Yellow Jackets kept on fighting through practices and matches.
As the Fall 2019 season came to a close, the Yellow Jackets have already put a lot of thought into their goals for next season. The team is determined to bump their standings in the HCAC up to a top contender spot.
Alongside improving their HCAC standings, the team is striving to make it to conference play. Conference play would possibly allow the team to win the conference.
In addition to the team goals, there are also several personal player goals. These range from learning and improving upon different skills such as hitting, give their best effort towards practices and games, and winning more doubles and singles matches.
With all of these goals, the Yellow Jackets will set themselves up for success for next season.
Written by: Hailey Krawczyk
