The Huskies’ win streak continues
With a score of 5–2, the Women’s Tennis team won their opening GLIAC play against Saginaw Valley State on Saturday, Mar. 21 at 10 a.m. This home game at Gates Tennis Center adds to the team’s winning streak, now sitting at five games in a row. The Huskies began by winning the double point claiming a majority of the three doubles matches at the start of the event.
Head Coach Mike Andrews commented that “There were a lot of three-set set matches, a lot of close matches, so the team really fought hard and hung in there. Getting the doubles point to start off the match is always great, so we started up 1–0. The team’s been great, Leon and I have been preparing them the best we can. I’m big on effort, attitude, and work, and they were all great today.”
The doubles then split off into the single games, and just a little into the first set, player Emily Cojocaru, a Computer Science junior, went down. Her opponent, Claudia Calderero Prado,“hit a nice angle ball to backhand,” Cojocaru said. “I went for it, stretched, slipped, overextended. I’ve overextended like that quite a few times, this time was worse due to the amount of force.”
After a quick break and some sports tape, Cojocaru bounced back up to continue the game. “I’m a consistent player, so I was just hitting good rally balls, deep enough and hard enough rally balls, waiting for her to miss. In the second set, she started playing better. She became more consistent, attacking back end more, running around, hitting forehands to my back corner, putting me in more of a defensive position.”
In the third set, Cojocaru received coaching to “be more aggressive, and don’t be afraid to play [her] game.” Despite listening to the pep talk and playing better herself, her opponent didn’t back down. “She was still playing well at that point, and I had to be careful not to break my focus and lose momentum.”
When asked how he thought the matches went, Head Coach Andrews said he was “very pleased with a very tough win today.”
“You always wonder how you’re going to compete in the conference, and now we’re beginning to find out,” he concluded.
The Head Coach adds that he’s looking forward to their next game on Friday, Mar. 27 against Purdue Northwest at Hammond, IN. For more information, go to their page on the athletics website at michigantechhuskies.com/sports/womens-tennis.
