The Terrapin women’s tennis team had not won a match in more than a month when the Terps took to the courts yesterday afternoon against visiting Georgetown.
Since a March 6 victory against Columbia, the Terps had been swept in six consecutive matches, unable to take a single individual match in that time span.
And while the Terps were able to knock off an inferior Hoyas (6-11) squad for their fourth victory of the season, 6-1, the atmosphere after the match was unexpectedly tempered, especially after a match where the Terps won five singles matches in straight sets.
“We should have beaten them; we played against a different class of player than us,” coach Howard Joffe said. “To be honest, I was a little disappointed with our kids. Several of them didn’t come out with the enthusiasm and passion that I was looking for.”
Senior Lisa Miller, who dominated her match at No. 2 singles, 6-1, 6-0, echoed her coach’s sentiment.
“It’s always good to get a win, especially for some of the young girls on the team,” Miller said, referencing the three freshmen and four sophomores on the roster. “But we’ve played [Georgetown] in the past, and we expected to come out on top.”
Joffe said the result was expected, especially against a Hoyas squad hailing from a Big East conference that has traditionally lagged behind in tennis.
“The teams that we have beaten are very mediocre teams,” said Joffe, whose squad had notched two of its previous three wins against teams with losing records. “But I think our kids have done well. We could have lost this match if we had done a bad job over the course of the year.”
Continual development from his team, in spite of shutout losses, has persisted as a central theme for Joffe this season, and yesterday’s lopsided score pointed to a different Terp team than the one that started the season.
It didn’t matter much to Joffe. He sent the team on a conditioning run immediately following the match, a warning shot of sorts just one week before the start of the ACC Tournament.
“It’s late in the season, and they’re dealing with school and everything, so maybe I’m being too harsh with them,” Joffe said. “But I didn’t see anything especially good today.”
cwalsh@umdbk.com
