When Howard Joffe took over as the coach for the Terrapin women’s tennis team in July, he inherited a team lagging behind the rest of the ACC in both experience and talent.

He saw this season not as a chance to contend but as a chance to improve a team that graduated its top three players from a 2009 squad that went 4-17.

This evident rebuilding process led him to set his sights on this weekend’s ACC Tournament as the setting for his team’s season-long goal: winning its first round match.

“I saw that we needed constant improvement over the course of the year,” Joffe said. “And the best way to do this while avoiding discouragement was to focus on the ACC Tournament.”

Joffe realizes this will be no easy task, as the Terps’ winless conference season earned them the No. 12 seed in the 12-team tournament. They will have to contend with No. 5 seed Florida State (12-9, 6-4 ACC), who is ranked No. 14 in the nation and pummeled the Terps, 7-0, on April 11, in a match in which the Terps won only one set.

“At this moment, our team is playing as well as they’ve played all year, no question about it,” Joffe said. “But [Florida State] is certainly going to be a tall order.”

The Terps (5-13, 0-11) played four matches last week after their match with the Seminoles, a stretch during which they were able to win twice: Wednesday against Georgetown and Saturday against Richmond.

They also played arguably their best tennis during the conference schedule in losses to then-No. 37 N.C. State and then-No. 50 Wake Forest. In losing 6-1 and 5-2, respectively, the Terps were able to break a streak of seven consecutive conference shutouts.

“We’ve got some momentum just from playing so much last week,” said senior Lisa Miller, who could be playing in her last match as a Terp today. “Winning [today] has been what we’ve been shooting for since day one. It’d be nice to go out on a high note.”

Joffe has labeled his team’s talent as subpar all season, even once describing this season as “carnage.” He was uncharacteristically optimistic about fulfilling his team’s ultimate goal yesterday.

“I feel like the doubles point is absolutely critical,” Joffe said. “If we can win that, we have a legitimate chance at winning this match. We’re definitely peaking at the right time.”

cwalsh@umdbk.com