Women’s tennis continues season with a win
The No. 9 ranked University of Indianapolis women’s tennis team defeated No. 25 Marion University 8-1 on Feb. 18.
Seniors Maggie Ashby and Alena Perez-Majul won 8-2 to sweep the number one spot in doubles. Sophomore Kasey Land and freshman Brooke Boyts took the number two spot and won with a score of 8-4.
Perez-Majul and Ashby also swept the singles matches as UIndy won six straight matches but had to win a trio of tiebreakers and a pair of 6-4 sets before coming away victorious.
Perez-Majul took the number one spot and Ashby took the number two spot.
Following them were freshman Kelsey Matthews, senior Meghan Teunis and junior Rachel Barger at third, fourth and fifth respectively.
The start of the season saw a split of a win and a loss for the Greyhounds.
On Feb. 11 the team took on Butler University at the UIndy Tennis Center, losing 0-9.
Teunis achieved third in singles.
Matthews followed with the fourth position.
The Greyhounds emerged victorious at their first match of the season against Georgetown College, winning 8-1 at home on Feb. 4.
UIndy doubles dominated the match, with the duo of Ashby and Perez-Majul at No. 1, sophomore Claire Liles and Boyts at No. 2 and Barger and Land at No. 3.
Greyhound singles won five of six matches, with Teunis at No. 4 and sophomore Taylor Eckert at No. 6.
The games played thus far in the season were not Great Lakes Valley Conference games and will not affect conference rankings. They were more of a learning experience, according to Head Coach John Venter.
“Playing Georgetown was a match to help get our feet underneath us and see how good we can be,” Venter said. “Playing Butler was a chance to play a good team, a non-division opponent. That will help us improve our game, [and] it’s a similar situation against Marian.”
According to Perez-Majul, the team feels well prepared and satisfied with the match.
“It was great to start the season off with a win and to get our confidence up,” she said.
The first matches have not been conference matches and thus have not affected their GLVC standings.
However after the Feb. 24 match against Marian University, the games will have implications for the GLVC.
“In the fourth week of our season, the ante will be upped, so to speak.” Venter said. “We are trying to prepare ourselves to play our best tennis at that point in the season.”
This year’s team is a very “deep” team, according to Venter, meaning that even the women on the bench are very talented. He said that having such a high level of talent can allow for lots of flexibility in whom he plays in the matches and can allow flexibility for illness or injury.
Due to the level of talent, Venter is playing nine women in each match, instead of the usual six or seven.
“To play nine [women] is unusual, but we just have that much talent,” Venter said. “I expect us to really make a run at some championships and get to the NCAA tournament and be one of the best teams we’ve had in several years.”
The competition the Greyhounds face during the season can be stiff. According to Ashby, it is not uncommon for many of the women on opposing teams to be from foreign lands or more successful team franchises.
“In our division, we have a lot of Top 25-ranked teams, and it can be intimidating sometimes. There are all these girls in DII from foreign countries—Brazil, Europe, Africa,” Ashby said.
Ashby and Perez-Majul mentioned that Venter is famous for his belief in self-confidence and that confidence is one thing the team needs to work on to be successful this season.
“The talent is there. You name it, we can hit every shot. But if you put in a high level of confidence with all that talent, we will be an extremely tough team to beat,” Venter said. “We have to believe that we can win every match and that no team on our schedule is out of our league.”
Perez-Majul agrees with her coach when it comes to the team’s confidence.
“We can’t go into a match already scared. We have to tell ourselves [that] we are just as good as they are,” she said. “Basically, we have to believe in our own game and not worry so much about our opponents.”
While the women have the support of family, friends and the UIndy men’s tennis team, they would like more students to come and cheer for them.
“It’s nice to have athletes supporting athletes. And we know tennis isn’t the easiest sport to follow,” Ashby said. “But we do enjoy our fans, and it gives us something to look forward to.”
The next match will be against Grand Valley State University at the UIndy Tennis Center on Saturday, Feb. 24 at 4:00 p.m.
