Lucye Rafferty/The Hoya A men’s tennis player prepares to hit a forehand during a match earlier this year. The team was shut out in their latest competition indoors against Navy.
After taking the winter holiday off, the Georgetown tennis teams are back on the courts, showing improvement and working on returning to top form. Despite losses for both teams last weekend, both the men and women played more consistent tennis and are on the path to a strong spring season.
Last Saturday the men took on a competitive Navy team and ultimately fell 5-0. With three freshmen on the starting roster, the Hoyas are still a young squad and the match was a good measure of the team’s potential for the season to come.
“We played much better than the first weekend,” said Head Coach Rich Bausch. “We hadn’t played competitive tennis since October, so we are still getting the rust off. I’d say we had a 70-80 percent improvement from the first weekend.”
Last weekend, the women’s team was also competing. In the Virginia Commonwealth University Invitational in Richmond, Va., the women played two matches on Friday and another on Sunday. They were also unable to pick up a win, but one positive they could take away from the competition was the development in the level of play over the course of the weekend.
“There was tremendous improvement from Friday to Sunday,” said Bausch.
In the first match of the tournament, the Hoyas took on Campbell University and lost 4-1. The doubles team of sophomore Kristin Dew and freshman Sana Malouf picked up the win for the Hoyas with a 6-2,7-6 victory. Later on Friday, Georgetown took on Virginia Commonwealth, the No. 17-ranked team in the nation, falling again 4-1. Once more the Hoyas struggled, picking up only one set from freshman Eileen Boyle in singles.
On Sunday, the Hoyas finished off the weekend with their best performance. Despite the score, the Hoyas played well against East Carolina, losing 3-1. The team of freshman Nora Gardner and Boyle picked up the Hoyas only win in doubles 6-1, 7-5. Other strong showings were put in by senior Jordan Botjer, who won the first set of her singles match, but dropped the second and was unable to finish due to time constraints; and Malouf, who also won one set of her match, but ultimately fell 6-0, 2-6, 6-4 to junior Cristina eilicke.
“On Sunday, when we played East Carolina, who was comparable to the first team we played [Campbell University], but we looked so much better,” Bausch said.
This weekend the Hoyas will again be competing, as the men head to Charlottesville, Va., to take on No. 28 Virginia on Saturday and then on to College Park, Md., to face Maryland on Sunday. The women will remain in the District for the weekend, playing host to James adison on Saturday at 6 p.m.
“It is going to take time for the teams to come together,” Bausch said. “These matches will be a measurement test.”