Story by MAYAN PAZ Photos by PARKER NISBETH
Tiger Media Network
The Fort Hays State University women’s tennis team is approaching the final competitive step of the fall semester after the ITA Fall Central Regional Tournament and a friendly scrimmage against Barton Community College. The team will head to Pratt, this Friday for a doubles tournament that will conclude their competitions for the semester and will set them for a four-month practice period until completions resume towards the end of February.
At the ITA tournament, an individual tournament without team scores, Irina Alfonso, Grace Unruh, and Yone Pereiro won their first-round matches before losing in the second round. Shreethika Vangala lost her first-round match but bounced back with a three-set win in the consolation bracket. In the doubles tournament, Alfonso and Suzana Faucz also lost their first-round match and won their consultation match with an impressive 8-0 win over a team from Missouri Western.
The 8-0 win will be remembered by the team, as head coach Brian Flax claimed that it was perhaps the best performance he had ever witnessed from a doubles team during his time with the Tigers.
“It may have been the closest thing to a perfect doubles match that I have ever seen played for the Tigers in my 29 years,” Flax said. “The Western team had no answers for Irina’s and Suzanas’s game.”
Flax also addressed the general team performance.
“The ITA in Oklahoma was a success in my mind. We won three of five first-round matches, which was a great start,” he said. “We lost two matches in tiebreakers, or we would have had two players in the round of 16 of winners.”
The team is now approaching a long stretch with no competition, but the spirit is high among the players, and they are positive they are headed in the right direction.
“We really improved lately, and we have been able to keep our mentality in the right place even after tough losses,” sophomore Ines Lattore said.
For the final tournament of the fall, the Tigers will head to Pratt for a doubles-only tournament, an unusual event.
“It is our first time playing in a doubles-only tournament, so we are excited about that and that the entire team will see action,” Flax said.
The team is looking forward to the spring semester and Lattore expects good things from the team.
“We are positive and confident,” she said, “I’m sure we will be better in the spring than what we did last year.”
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