Growing pains plagued the Terrapin women’s tennis team through its fall season and into its final tournament. But with the end of its fall season Sunday at the Kitty Harrison Invitational tournament hosted by North Carolina, the team has a clean slate.
None of the fall tournaments count towards the team’s win column in the spring, when the Terps will pursue their fourth-straight NCAA tournament appearance.
But the fall tournaments, including the final one at Chapel Hill, were not played for nothing. Though the losses stung, each match helped prepare the young, inexperienced team for the spring season.
“This tournament [was] a great chance for us to get ready for the season, especially because we play[ed] in dual matches, just like we do in the season. This let us play a lot of people and get even more experience,” junior co-captain Michal Amir said.
At the Kitty Harrison Invitational, six Terps played both singles and doubles matches. However, the team played without sophomore Eleanor Peters and freshman Adela Matejkova, who were injured and did not make the trip to Chapel Hill.
While the tournament gave the Terps experience competing against some of the nation’s top teams, including those from their own conference, the results were disappointing.
Freshman Karin Lundmark fell to North Carolina’s Meg Fanjoy on Friday in her first match, but won on Sunday, edging out Princeton’s Sarah Huah. Amir lost her first match to ACC opponent Austin Smith of the Tar Heels. But she rebounded against another ACC rival, Laura Vallverdu of Miami, in her second match.
The doubles pair of Lundmark and Amir beat Furman’s Laura Gioia and Natasa Manojlovic before losing to Carolina Escamilla and Christine Johnston of Kentucky.
In addition to the struggles of Lundmark and Amir, sophomore co-captain Lisa Miller lost two straight, to Bianca Eichkorn of Miami and Lara Alexander, after defeating Linzee Mabrey of North Carolina in her first match.
Miller and her doubles partner, freshman Oksana Krutiyenko, couldn’t get into a rhythm, losing to Jennifer Betts and Jessica Preeg of Furman and then to Lauren Meier and Sarah Woestmann of Kentucky.
Krutiyenko didn’t win a match the entire tournament, falling in singles to North Carolina’s Sophie Grabinski, William & Mary’s Lauren Sabacinski and Kentucky’s Jessica Giuggioli.
But despite the hard losses in Chapel Hill, the squad is confident in its abilities after competing in four fall tournaments.
“We’re starting to develop more as a team,” Amir said. “We’ve gotten to know each other better. These tournaments let us try out different doubles teams to see who worked well together. We’re in good shape.
“I think we’ll be ready for the season,” she said.
kyanchulisdbk@gmail.com
