University of Indianapolis women’s tennis is off to a great start, with senior Tyffaine Pais taking the crown at the ITA Midwest Regional tournament for the second year in a row, according to UIndy Athletics.
The mens and womens tennis teams only have one competition left in the fall semester according to its schedule, with select qualifiers taking part at the national competition depending on regional results. With Pais winning the title, she will now go on to compete at the national level, the ITA Cup in Rome, Ga. on Oct. 10. Last year she and Tom Zeuch both represented UIndy at the competition.
The men’s team competed in its side of the tournament this past weekend. Director of Tennis Malik Tabet said junior Matthieu Derache went into the men’s tournament ranked first regionally. The winner of this competition will also receive a bid to the national competition in Georgia.
Tabet said training and taking advantage of these tournaments is crucial to the overall development as a team. Because there are so few tennis tournaments this early in the season, he said this will be the only competition the team faces prior to the spring.
Though the competitions are solely individually-based, it still serves as a good test to see what the team needs to work on. Tabet said it provides the basis for what specific aspects the team needs to work on, whether that is physical, fundamental, strategical or mental.
Tabet said that during the fall, the team spends a lot of time working on the basics and getting the fundamentals down. He said it is sometimes harder to adjust practices in the fall because of the lack of competitions, whereas in the spring there are competitions almost every weekend and can adjust based on those. Tabet said he is excited to see how the teams will do in the spring season based on the talent his team has.
“I’ve got a young talented team,” Tabet said. “I’ve got three returners from last year that were part of the lineup, so I’m excited to see how much they’re going to grow this year.”
One of those returners is Pais, the sole member of her team continuing on-to nationals. According to the recap, Pais battled back after falling behind in multiple matches. Sophomore Jimena De Pablos Hernando also made it far into the competition, going undefeated up until the semifinal match. Pais said even though the competition is individually based, the team still trains and supports each other the same as if it were team scores.
“At the end we’re still supporting each other,” Pais said. “If my teammates are losing, I’m still sad for them, even if it doesn’t really impact me.”
Pais said even though she won last year, she did not want to pressure herself to win again this season. She had already achieved the huge milestone of making it into nationals in 2023.
“My goal was to go to nationals at least once,” Pais said. “I’ve done it. If I’m doing it one more time, it’s just a bonus… It’s not that I wasn’t expecting it, because of course, whenever you’re in a tournament, you want to win, you’re not going for losing.”
Pais said her goal going into the competition this year is to improve upon last year’s performance. According to ITA rankings from last fall, Pais finished 7th overall nationally.
“I just want to do better than last year,” Pais said. “Going there as a senior, it’s my last year, so I’m just gonna enjoy every moment and try to have fun on the court.”
