
The Waynesburg University women’s tennis team dropped its final regular season match to Geneva 9-0. The Jackets record fell to 1-11 overall and 0-8 in Presidents’ Athletic Conference action on the season.
The match was originally scheduled for Monday, Oct. 9, but weather pushed it back to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 10.
According to head coach Ron Headlee, Geneva mixed up its shots well, hitting a variety of low, soft, high and hard shots en route to the win.
“They play a lot different game than we’re used to,” Headlee said. “None of their players hit the ball super hard, but they hit the ball in right places.”
As a few times throughout the game Geneva hit the ball high enough that by the time it bounced and was heading back down, it was hitting the perimeter fence.
In doubles play, senior Wendy Wall and sophomore Noelle Hughes were paired together to play the number one doubles match.
Wall noted that the chemistry between her and Hughes has gotten better.
“We both improved a lot in doubles, we played better than we have before,” said Wall.
Closing out doubles play, the number two paring of senior Liz Ensminger and freshman Sierra Jones dropped a decision. Senior Brooklyn Shoup and sophomore Sierra Stevens lost playing as the third paring.
In singles play, Wall dropped her match 6-3, 6-4.
“[Me and my opponent] were pretty evenly matched, but she was running around a lot,” said Wall.
The match was highly contested with Wall making a lot of quality returns, and hits. According to Headlee the turning point was when Wall tried hit soft shots.
“Wendy went to the short game to start mixing it up, but the shots just didn’t fall her way,” said Headlee.
For the rest of singles play, Hughes lost as the number two. Ensminger lost a tough match in the three spot, where she won two games in each set. Sierra Stevens won a game in both sets as well. Jones and Hughes struggled in singles as they both dropped 6-0, 6-0 decisions.
The Jackets had two other matches last week. They lost to Bethany 9-0 Wednesday, Oct. 4. Saturday they struggled on the road at Pitt-Greensburg where they lost 9-0 as well.
The match against Geneva closed out the regular season, but the Jackets still have the postseason left, as they will travel to Erie for the PAC championships Friday, Oct. 20, and Saturday, Oct. 21. However, the team might not be able to qualify a full lineup.
“It looks like we might only have two girls going, because some of the girls weren’t able to travel to away matches,” said Headlee.
Wall and Hughes are the two Headlee mentioned who will compete at the tournament. Wall hopes that playing as the number one all year will have her ready for the postseason.
“I think its good that I have been playing girls that push me to compete harder, because its made me better,” said Wall.
The tournament is scheduled to start at 8:30 p.m. both days.