Eagles Battle During First ODAC Match

“Champions keep playing until they get it right.”
Billie Jean King

After the countless hours watching snow fall, playing tennis indoors, and conditioning and footwork drills, the BC Eagles tennis teams were finally able to get their seasons underway this weekend at our first conference match. Both the men’s and the women’s teams faced Virginia Wesleyan on Sunday at home. The men’s team picked up an easy victory against the Marlins winning 9-0.

The women’s match was much more competitive as it was a match between the #2 (Bridgewater) and #3 (Wesleyan) seeded teams in the ODAC according to the preseason poll. Unfortunately, we came out on the losing end of a very close 5-4 match which included three matches with tiebreakers. We were able to win two of the three doubles matches which got us off to a very strong start. We knew from the beginning that winning the doubles would be a necessary element to clinching the match. Unfortunately, we just weren’t able to pull it off in singles. Both Alissa Michael and Amanda Gorby picked up wins in their singles matches and Ally McConaughy and I both lost our singles matches in third set tiebreakers. The match, very easily, could have ended in our favor.

The outcome of the match wasn’t what we had hoped for, but there is much to be learned from this loss. We need to keep working hard and improving so that we can be successful in our other ODAC matches and in April when we face Virginia Wesleyan again at the tournament. As a team, we also struggled with being outdoors and facing the elements. I don’t like to make excuses but I felt like the weather really affected our performance negatively on Sunday. It was in the mid 30s all afternoon with strong winds. Besides the cold, it was hard to get in a rhythm and hit with confidence with the wind whipping through the courts. We got to practice outdoors for a little while on Saturday, but it wasn’t enough to get us acclimated to playing outdoors after being inside for so many weeks. This week we plan on going outside as much as possible to eliminate that as a major factor in our performance.

Like always, we had a great turnout of parents and family, family pets, friends, and classmates cheering us on from the sidelines. We continue to have a great fan turnout year after year and it is very encouraging as a player to feel that type of support especially for tennis which is not really popular as a spectator sport (especially at freezing temperatures)!

Our next match has been moved from Wednesday, March 3 to Thursday, March 4 and is a non conference match to be played at Shenandoah University. Hopefully the weather cooperates so we can get a W in the column on Thursday! This weekend, the teams leave for Hilton Head, South Carolina, where we will spend our entire spring break at the beach playing tennis and of course some two hand touch on the sand. It is the one of my favorite weeks of the year and I am especially looking forward to it this year. I can’t wait to go somewhere warmer than Virginia and spend my senior year spring break with my awesome teammates! See you on the courts…..GO EAGLES!!