After opening the season with three home matches, the University of Wisconsin women’s tennis team will travel to Virginia for its first two away matches of the season.
The team hopes to come away with a pair of road wins to improve its record from 2-1 to 4-1 following their two upcoming matches.
Despite a striking loss to DePaul in their season opener, the Badgers are coming off back-to-back sweeping wins against Eastern Michigan and Northern Illinois. This weekend’s opponents may present a tougher challenge.
The No. 68 Badgers will be facing Old Dominion on Saturday and College of William and Mary on Sunday, who ranked 63rd and 24th in the nation, respectively.
An up and coming team, Old Dominion has popped up as strong competition for the Wisconsin women this year. Coach Brian Fleishman is trying to prepare his girls for the match up.
“We don’t know much about Old Dominion,” Fleishman said, “They’ve had a good opening to their season — they’ve played against some good teams and won. Word is that they’re a dangerous team. I just keep telling the girls not to look past them and take the match seriously.”
The match against William and Mary will likely be even tougher for the Badgers. Coach Fleishman has high expectations for his team and hopes they can settle the score after a loss to William and Mary in February of last year.
“The match against William and Mary will be extremely competitive. I know we have the capability to beat them. Anyone can win on any given day,” Fleishman said.
Fleishman is especially looking forward to the matchup of Wisconsin No. 1 singles player Liz Carpenter and William and Mary’s No. 1 singles.
“Liz will be facing a strong opponent and it will be a good opportunity for her,” Fleishman said. “She’s definitely stepped up this season and made the most improvement on the team.”
With the loss of the women’s No. 2 singles player Alaina Trgovich to a torn ACL, Carpenter has been forced to step up and play hard for some big wins. In the team’s last two matches, Carpenter has formed somewhat of a winning streak, winning both her doubles and singles matches.
After being at home for their first three games, the Badgers are going on the road for the first time this season. Being on the road and playing such strong opponents, the team has the opportunity to really show what they’re made of. Fleishman sees these potential setbacks as advantages.
“I honestly think that we’re a better team on the road,” Fleishman said. “There are fewer distractions because it’s a more controlled environment. We can control what the girls do, what they eat, and how much they sleep.”
Hopefully the momentum the Badgers have built up after winning their last two matches acts as additional advantage in helping them in this weekend’s matches.
According to the International Tennis Association, the Wisconsin women’s current national ranking, 68th, is exactly what their final national ranking was at the end of last year’s season. Improving on this rank represents not only improvement throughout this season, but improvement compared to last year’s season.
This year, Fleishman has been trying to emphasize the importance of improvement throughout the season. So far, the girls have reflected this in their performances.
“The team has been getting better with each match. I see this as nothing but a good thing. I always tell the girls that it’s not how they start the season — it’s how they finish it. That has been the theme of our season,” Fleishman said.
