Wollenzien and company prepare for conference play
The 2023 season for the women’s tennis team here in Kingsville has gotten off to a promising start under Head Coach Autumn Wollenzien, starting out the season 4-3, 1-1 in conference. The team is going to be getting into more conference as the season progresses and Coach Wollenzien is confident with her team and their performance so far, “This team’s work ethic has been great,” said Coach Wollenzien, “We all understand how much work it takes just to win one match. These ladies come prepared and ready to work hard day after day.”
This is the best start to a season in the first seven games since the team began the 2020 season 5-2, which unfortunately was halted and eventually canceled entirely due to the COVID virus. Though they would lose this season’s opener 0-7 to the Corpus Christi Islanders, Coach Wollenzien and her team have taken some commanding victories themselves which has led to this great overall start.
The team has six more conference opponents to face after a road trip to Florida during the spring break week where they faced three universities in Orlando (Two) and Tampa (One). It will be the first time the team will play on home court since the loss to the Islanders back on Jan 30 but, despite the recent traveling and conference play ahead and still more traveling to do, junior Raina Zaffar prioritizes being ready for these kinds of stretches, “As we play more matches we get tougher and tougher,” said Zaffar, “ We’re taking care of our bodies and minds which further helps us to function better as players on courts.”
The Javelinas have a total of six conference matches remaining and a match against Prairie View A&M in between on April 2 until they can reach the LSC (Lone Star Conference) Tournament on April 20. When asked about furthering the success of the team for the post-season, sophomore Manuela Turolo inform that the team is together and are working towards success, “To achieve all of our goals we all need to come together as a team during matches, believing all in the same goal and show up at the same time in both singles and double,” said Turolo, “Once we will be able to do that, I am sure we will obtain great results.”