Makin' a racket, havin' a ball!

Our team is getting very excited, as our first match of the spring season approaches in only 10 days!!

We'll be playing Pace at 10am on March 6th, home, on our indoor courts. It's actually a double header- the boys will be playing right after us.

Our practices have been going great! Especially with this year's addition of music, we've added some fun and flair to practice. On top of that, we've all been very motivated in keeping up with fitness and staying in shape. Our assistant coach has incorporated more drills/games that we can play as a team into practices, as well. We always end with some sort of fun game like Around the World, Queen of the Court, or the Olympics.

There are a few exciting things in the near future that we are getting anxious about. First, we leave for our team Orlando trip in 2 weeks! Also, a few of us on the team entered the Dunkin Donuts Contest again this year to make their next donut, after last year's Vermint Chocolate donut creation didn't make the cut...

Also, 3 of us entered a video to try and win to be in a photo shoot with Venus and Serena.

That's where we're at now...with a lot more to come!

SMC Women's Tennis

Finally

It's hard to believe the spring season has officially started. However, our team could not be more happy. We have started practices, which is great because it has given our team the opportunity to get back into our routine. It has been great to be back on court with everyone. We have had so much fun already, and it is only week 1. We all have a blast at practice, and the fun continues at team dinner in Alliot.

Our focus now is getting ready for our spring break trip to Orlando in March. It seems like it is far away, but it will be there before we know it. Once we get back from Orlando our conference matches begin. We start off the season by playing Stonehill and Bentley.

It will be a tough spring season, but we are excited for the challenges ahead.

Another Successful Road Trip!

We returned last weekend from a long trip to Franklin Pierce and New Haven. It was a very successful weekend for us! After a tough loss to Adelphi 2 weeks ago, it was nice to get back in our groove and win two big league matches.

On Saturday, the weather was miserable so we played on Franklin Pierce's indoor courts. After winning all three doubles matches, we went on to take all six singles matches as well! We left with a  9-0 win, ready to play New Haven on sunday.
On our drive from Franklin Pierce to New Haven after the match, we stopped at Rein's Deli in Connecticut who is famous for their pickles. A few of us had a contest to see who could eat the most...it was tied at 5 apiece. No winner unfortunately. But as always, we had a lot of fun.
We got to the hotel later that night where most of us did homework- it's a busy week ahead of us for everyone. Luckily, sunday's weather was beautiful so we were able to play our match outside. Again, we won all three doubles matches to start! Some of the singles matches were tough, and we ended up winning 4 of the 6 for a 7-2 overall win!
One of the things we pride ourselves in is our van rides, so the 5 hour van ride back to school didn't seem so bad. We listened to our favorite songs (Bottoms Up and Party in the USA) at least 10 times each, took some pictures, recorded some videos, and stopped at Subway and Panera. Check out the video below to see some of our road trip activities...

Fall Season Begins...

It has been a great couple of weeks of tennis. We've played St. Rose and Le Moyne and ended up winning both, which was a great way to start off our season. We have an awesome group of first years, and they are an awesome addition.

We have also done a lot of team bonding activities. We went to Eileen's house for a team dinner. The food was amazing. We went on her boat for some tubing and water skiing action. It was during the time of the US Open, so we were able to cheer on our fellow American Oudin.

The other day at practice Eileen's mom brought us homemade apple pie. It was delicious! We have also made our trip to Nothing but Noodles, which is always a good time. Great food, great people.

We are all looking forward to our match against Adelphi on Sunday. It looks like it will be a good match.

Season comes to an end...

Our season came to an end this past thursday, unfortunately, in a 5-0 loss to Queens College in the first round of the NCAA tournament. They were a great team, but the 5-0 score doesn't really match the quality of doubles and singles that was played. 

We lost all 3 doubles, but our #1 team only lost 8-6. The #2 team started to come back from a

 6-0 deficit to lose only 8-4. And our #3 team lost 8-3. We played better than the score reflects! 

Although we were disappointed in the loss, it was a great experience to travel together and play in the NCAA tournament. The week before the match we spent a lot of time preparing- women from the Burlington area, who Coach was able to contact, came to one of our practices and we played a doubles round robin. They provided great tips and advice for our doubles play. And although we lost to Queens, we still learned a lot!

After the match on Thursday we went to Bertuccis- our team's new hotspot. Our waiter, Michael, memorized all of our names (11 of us total) as well as our orders. It was very impressive!! We had some fun with it--our assistant coach, Amy, said her name was Beatrice, but goes by "B," Eileen said her name was Eileen Dover, and I used my middle name (Beardsley), as my name. We also took a lot of pictures. It was a really fun night to end our season!

And since the team was required to move all of our final exams to monday, tuesday, and wednesday of that week, when we got back to campus thursday night we had no responsibilities! We all got together for our last night at Saint Mike's until preseason starts in August!

Team at Bertucci's after NCAAs

On the News!

Here is the link to Channel 3 News in Burlington. They did a story on our team! 

http://www.wcax.com/Global/category.asp?C=18198&nav=menu183_4

Above is a picture of us before the Sports Banquet ("Block M") that was on thursday.

Read Marran's post below for more info on our team's berth in the NCAA tournament!

NCAA Tournament

Semi-finals Match vs. Stonehill...

We played amazing tennis against Stonehill. Even though we lost 5-3, we played so tough. After doubles we were up 2-1, which was excellent. We were all very happy about that. With singles next we knew we were going to have to come out with some big wins. Our number 1 singles player Lindsay came out with a win. Our number 2 singles player Dee had a 5-2 lead in the third set when her match was called. Many of our other singles matches were very close and could have easily have gone either way. We were very happy with the way we played.

Despite losing in the semi-finals, we have still qualified for the NCAA tournament! We are seeded 6 in the East Region and will play next week in the first round. We could no be more happy. It will be an awesome match that we are all looking forward to. This is a great oppurtunity for our team to play great competition and represent Saint Michael's College.