Freshman Kristina Hovsepyan became the first freshman to compete at the No. 1 singles spot for the Terps in 14 years.
After the Terrapins women’s tennis team lost for the first time this season in a close contest with St. John’s almost two weeks ago, disappointed Terps players quietly packed their things and exited the Tennis Center at College Park in near silence.
At practice the past two weeks, however, the courts have been reinvigorated, as the Terps prepared for upcoming matches at Miami (4-2) today and Florida State (5-3) on Sunday to kick off ACC play.
The Terps added time to train for this weekend after Saturday’s match with Columbia was canceled due to inclement weather, and coach Daria Panova said that match will not be rescheduled.
“Today, people feel motivation has to go from the inside,” sophomore Nataliya Bredikhina said last week in their first practice after the loss. “Everybody feels a little bit more responsible because we were really close, and it means that if we worked a little bit harder, maybe we would win. That’s what we have to do for the future.”
Freshman Kristina Hovsepyan said the team held several meetings and is “back on track.” Panova thinks the loss was a “wake-up call” because she felt uncertain how her team would play in the ACC without already having to respond to a defeat.
“I think the tough loss made us stronger,” sophomore Olga Gaistruk said last week. “I can see the girls during the practices; they give much more than they used to give before this hard loss.”
Panova said Gaistruk is ready to play this weekend for the first time since tweaking her knee against Richmond on Jan. 26.
Today’s matchup in Coral Gables, Fla., will mark the first of a three-game road trip for the Terps. Last year, they were winless on the road, but this season, the Terps have already notched a pair of victories away from home.
Bredikhina feels that the road victories give the team added confidence for future away matches, and Gaistruk also believes the early success on the road is crucial in establishing the Terps’ dominance on unfamiliar courts.
They will need that confidence when they take on the No. 17 Hurricanes and the Seminoles, ranked No. 30 by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. Neither team has a loss at home this season and both went to the NCAA tournament last season, with Miami advancing to the semifinals. In last season’s meetings, the Terps were dominated, losing to Miami, 7-0, and 6-1 to Florida State.
This year, the Terps have a much younger team, but Panova doesn’t believe the lack of experience is necessarily a bad thing.
“I think lack of experience of playing ACC teams can play to our advantage as well because they don’t know what to expect and they don’t know their history,” Panova said. “They just play like they play every team before that.”
The second-year coach said the two weeks to prepare for the Hurricanes and Seminoles was fortunate, and Hovsepyan feels the Terps have made the most out of the additional time to prepare.
“We’ve been having some tough practices,” Hovsepyan said. “A lot of hitting. We wanted to go outside this week but weren’t able to, but just a lot of hitting, a lot of making balls, a lot of running. It was tough.”
Even with the extra time to prepare, Panova understands just how strong the Terps’ upcoming opponents are. She doesn’t know if a young Terps team can pull out a win against two proven teams, but she said there is still hope.
“It’s tough,” Panova said. “We have a very young team. I mean, are they talented enough? Yes. But in order to beat teams that are top 30 in the country, we need to be perfect.”
