Women’s tennis looks to build on successful season

The Allegheny Men’s and Women’s Tennis teams recently wrapped up a successful fall campaign. Both teams finished with a perfect 4-0 record, which bodes well for the future and most importantly, the upcoming spring season.

The Campus caught up with Women’s Tennis team member, Satori Chin, ’22, who talked about the season and how she felt the team has performed throughout the fall.

“Our fall season recently ended and it went pretty well,” Chin said. “Since last year we’ve been recruiting a lot of talented (first-year students) so our team has been performing really well.”

Chin also acknowledged that the team not only held their own recently at the Nancy J. Heath Tournament, but actually took first place in the competition — the same competition that they were unable to win last year.

“We have won every home game, and both the men’s and women’s teams recently won the Nancy J. Heath Tournament, which is a huge accomplishment for us,” Chin said. “With that I’m really excited to see what this team can do in the future.”

Along with success on the court has come All-Conference accolades for a number of athletes on the men’s and women’s tennis teams.

“Last year, some of my teammates were recognized by the (North Coast Athletic Conference), but we didn’t have a huge number of players,” Chin said. “However, this past year we have recruited a lot of new players, and we’ve went from having eight women on the team to 17.”

Other reasons for the spike in success this season is a lack of injuries — last season, many members of the team were injured and couldn’t play much, but they returned to the court this fall and will head into the spring season, according to Chin.

“Last season one of our top players was out due to an injury, so it was challenging to perform against other teams how we usually did and how we were capable of,” Chin said. “I think this is one of the reasons we’ve had such a good start, and I think our team will continue to do better in the future.”

Amanda Ress Liere, ’20, also touched on the team’s success this fall season and what she thinks led to their undefeated season.

“We had a really good season this fall,” Ress Liere said. “I think that all the work we put in in the weightroom throughout the offseason really paid off in a big way in the fall.”

The team’s success has not come without change and the ability to adapt. In August, the tennis program hired a new head coach, Taylor Coffman, who was an assistant coach last season for the Gators.

“We had a new coach this year so that always takes a little bit of time to adapt to her methods and ideas,” Ress Liere said. “But, with all the work we put in, we felt confident from the start that we were going to be successful.”

Individually, the tennis team athletes know their strengths and weaknesses, and will continue to work hard everyday to be the best players they can be.

“I had a good season this fall for sure,” Ress Liere said. “I only lost one match the whole season so I am very proud of that.”

Along with senior leader Ress Liere, Chin also felt positive about her second fall season as a Gator.

“Personally, I’m always looking to improve my game,” Chin said. “When I came onto the team last year I was definitely not the best player, but the way I play now is much better.”

Chin talked about specific areas of her game that she has worked on and will continue to work on into the future.

“I can improve in so many ways,” Chin said. “My serves, my groundstrokes, my volleys, and other strategies are all things I know I can improve on.”

With the fall season all wrapped up, Chin expressed her excitement about the future of the program and the upcoming spring season.

“Now that we have a bunch of new players, I’m excited to see how we’ll compete against teams that we lost to last season,” Chin said. “I am also expecting to win against teams that we lost to last year.”