By Gustav Hollnagel–
Things were not meant to go great for the women’s tennis team Saturday, April 16, in Omaha at the Tranquility Park. In 18 total matches, Morningside would only win three. But not all hope is lost, as the season is approaching the final stretch.
Morningside went 0-2 on the day, which drops their record to 4-5 during the spring season. The early match against Hastings College turned out with three wins from Jacy Jahn in no.6 singles (6-2, 7-5), and doubles wins by Jahn-Przymus (8-4) and Hein-Schroeder (8-3).
Jahn said she hates losing so that is her personal motivation. She also tries to “win matches to help motivate the rest of the team to win. Even if I am behind in my match I try not to give up and to finish strong. That way,” according to Jahn, “I can still be proud of my performance and learn from my mistakes.”
The afternoon match-up against Concordia ended in a match score of 0-9, which sadly makes it seem like a repeat of last year’s meeting (also 0-9). Shannon Schroeder put up a long fight in the no.5 singles flight and found her way into a third set tiebreaker, which ended 6-10 in view of Schroeder. Lynn Leonard had the second closest match at no.1 singles (4-6, 3-6).
After the meet, Schroeder said, “During the last few weeks we’ve played some pretty tough teams. Nobody likes to lose a meet 9-0, but I feel that we all played our best, and that’s what really counts.” She also thought the team “didn’t just hand it to them”, but made them work for the points that they won.
Leaving the Saturday behind, the team was scheduled to play Briar Cliff at home on Monday, April 18. That meet was postponed due to weather implications.
On Wednesday, with the weather forecast giving at least a little bit of hope, Morningside is set to play GPAC rival USF (University of Sioux Falls).
In respect to the upcoming matches and the final bit of the season, Schroeder said the team goal is to make the GPAC tournament and “since we’ve been there before, making it to the second round.”
Jahn agrees with Schroeder: “Naturally, we all like to win so, I hopewe can finish out the season with some victories. We still have a lot of meets left so I think there is time to improve.” She also hopes the weather will start to cooperate, partly to make up for the meets that have been cancelled so far.
As mentioned previously, the Briar Cliff meet still lies still ahead. With the weather not looking too promising for Thursday (April 21), the scheduled home match against Buena Vista University will also have to be made up before the GPAC tournament (May 6 and 7, 2011).
Schroeder also commented on the postponed BC game: “I’d say the girls team is pretty excited to have a big win against briar cliff.” Rather jokingly, Schroeder added they all expect Coach Lawrence Mason to take them to Subway at least once this spring.
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