W. tennis wins one, loses one over weekend

By: Katie Moody

Posted: 4/24/08

Despite high expectations when the Hopkins women's tennis team headed south to Fredericksburg, Va. on Sunday, the Jays came home with a loss after they faced the first-ranked Washington & Lee (21-0). This is Hopkins's second loss of the season, and their record falls to a still-impressive 13-2, even with losing the match to the Generals 7-2.

Hopkins came back to Baltimore with two wins in the match: one in the second doubles and one in the third singles. The doubles team of sophomore Amanda Schubert and freshman Abby Dwyer improved their record to 9-2 on the season with a hard-earned 9-8 win at second over Leah Weston and Catherine Reed. At third singles, freshman Yasmine Elamir improved her win total to 14 straight, when she soundly defeated Weston 6-2, 7-5.

Schubert recaps the doubles match. "Abby and I were really focusing on playing as a team during our doubles match against Washington & Lee," she said. "We played in a way that could maximize both of our strengths. It just clicked really well on Sunday. We both brought our A-games."

Dwyer agrees with her teammate. "During our doubles match we just knew that we didn't have any pressure on us," she said. "We were playing the number one team in the country and the number-two doubles team opposed to our normal number-three spot - so we were just really psyched to have this opportunity. We just went in with nothing to lose and happen to come out on top."

The excitement over the two wins in the match overshadowed the overall defeat for the Lady Jays. Even though there was an air of disappointment, the team is clearly not at all losing any focus or momentum. They are taking the match against Washington & Lee as a chance to really focus on their few weaknesses, and learn where to score the most points as they finish the season.

"We tend to think of our team as primarily a singles team, because we find we can rely on our singles matches for points," Schubert said. "In practices we have been trying to focus on strengthening our doubles, especially because doubles matches are played before singles, so it's nice to gain a quick lead."

"We do a ton of drills and we always play at least one set of singles and doubles each practice," Dwyer said. "Coach [Willenborg] really focuses on us hitting a lot of balls each day and we have to go into every practice like we do in every match: 100 percent."

One-hundred percent is exactly what these ladies are looking to bring to the court when they host Mary Washington (23-3) on Tuesday, April 22 and then go on to host the 2008 Centennial Conference Championship on the 25th and 27th. As the pressure builds and the road to nationals lies out before them, the ladies are doing their best to stay cool, calm and focused on getting there one match at a time. When the ladies last faced Mary Washington, it was in the 2007 NCAA tournament, and the Jays fell 5-4.

This year, they have a new plan of attack, doing all they can to keep the pressure off them and on their opponents. "We are kind of in the same situation with Mary Washington as we were with Washington & Lee," Dwyer said enthusiastically. "We know that this team is supposed to beat us, so the pressure is on them and we need to just go out there and play our hearts out."

Shubert agrees. "We are happy to be hosting a top team and hope to continue our strong record of winning at home!" she said.

Looking slightly past the match against Mary Washington, the ladies hope to dominate the Centennial Conference Championship, and head to the NCAA tournament. The competition will be very tough, but this year's squad is better than ever, and they are ready to face the challenges that wait for them.

Confidence, teamwork and personal improvement are important to the squad, according to Dwyer. "I'm really confident in our team. We know how to play when we need to and no matter what the result is, we all know that we're getting better from these experiences."