Southwestern College Collegian

Issue date: 3/26/08 Section: Sports

Starting a season is no easy task for any team, but the men's and women's tennis teams are making matches interesting. The women's team has no games this week, but will roll into a fairly busy schedule after that. On the men's side, the Builders will travel to Siloam Springs, Ark., tomorrow to play John Brown University at 3 p.m. They will host Oklahoma Wesleyan University at 3 p.m. Monday. The women's team hosted two matches the week before Spring Break. They won a dual match March 11 against John Brown University 7-2, winning four of the six singles matches and sweeping the doubles. Winning for the women were Lauren Pettey, business administration senior, Madison Lumm, elementary education senior, Mehvash Shahzada, biochemistry junior and Kelsey Reynolds, communication junior. The women played Central Christian College March 13 at home in their last match before Spring Break. They won 9-0, sweeping both singles and doubles play. John Paulin, head coach, said, "We dominated the match really well. Central Christian was just real inexperienced. We have good experience and good depth." Shahzada said, "All of us really get along and know each other's strengths and weaknesses, which helps when playing doubles. The support and respect for one another helps each girl during their singles match. We really want to win the match not only for personal satisfaction, but also to help the team out in the overall score. That one match can make difference in winning or losing, so we are constantly fighting to win every point to win the match." The men lost 5-4 against the Tigers, who they had previously beaten in the fall season. Paulin said, "It was a close match. We weren't overconfident. They just came out ready to play, and we did too, but they came out on top." Jeff Smith, physical education sophomore, said, "It was an alright match, but we should have won. People had to step in and get put in a position they aren't normally in, but they battled well and played hard." The team traveled to Oklahoma Wesleyan University yesterday. Results were not available at press time. Although it's hard to tell exactly where the teams are at so early in the season, they are still making new goals for themselves. "I'd like to see everyone come to more practices," Smith said. "Our biggest issue is just getting everybody to practice more." Paulin said, "We have good potential on the men's side. It just depends on how well we play on the day that we play. We've got a good set of girls too. If we can keep them healthy. We're taking them one at a time, but we'll win some matches." Paige Carswell is a freshman majoring in journalism. You may e-mail her at paige.carswell@sckans.edu.

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