2008 Woodie Awards
Tennis team upsets No. 1 Emory
Women's tennis team beats three-time defending champion, Emory
Jessica Betancourt
Issue date: 3/31/06 Section: Sports
- Page 1 of 1
|
The Tigers are currently ranked No. 6 in the nation but will undoubtedly move up in the next rankings.
Trinity defeated Emory 7-2 to pull off the upset win. Emory is the three-time defending national champion team.
"It was surreal," said Senior Co-Captain Virginia Fraser. "Emory's always been an untouchable team. It was epic for me."
Fraser was undefeated in four matches for the weekend to bring her season record to 15-2.
The Saturday match against Pomona-Pitzer (Ca.) was postponed because of snow but was played on Sunday. Sunday's match against Washington and Lee University (Va.) was canceled.
Trinity defeated Pomona-Pitzer 6-3 to increase its record to 12-1 for the season. The team lost its first match of the season 0-9 against Division II Tarleton State University.
"They're picking up steam at the right time in the season with six or seven weeks left," said Head Tennis Coach Butch Newman, referring to the women's team.
At this rate, the women's team has a chance to win the na-tional title in May. To get there, the team must defeat regional foe Hardin-Simmons University at home Saturday at 9 a.m.
"All we can do to improve is try to maintain a positive attitude and fight for every match, giving each one everything we've got," Fraser said.
The Tigers also face Tyler Junior College, the reigning National Junior College women's team, Friday at 3 p.m.
They finish the weekend with a regional home match against the University of Texas at Tyler at noon.
Fraser attributes the success of the women's team to the cooperative attitude of the players.
"Instead of having a hierarchy of classes, we're trying to work as a family," Fraser said.
The men's team is also ranked No. 6 nationally but has an 8-5 record for the season.
They lost 0-7 against No. 2 Middlebury College (Vt.) and 2-5 to top-ranked University of California at Santa Cruz this past weekend.
The Tigers won all three doubles matches to defeat Pacific Lutheran (Wa.) 5-2 on Saturday.
"It showed us how good the better teams in Division III are and what we're up against," said Sophomore Oliver Gaines.
John Matthews, senior, agreed that, although the end result was not what he wanted, he learned a lot from the weekend's matches.
"We didn't do as well as we'd hoped, but it was still a positive experience," Matthews said.
The men's team will also face three teams this weekend in home match play.