"For all I know, you guys might still be stranded in California!" Amherst Tennis Alum Laura Stein exclaimed while inquiring about my next extraordinarily overdue blog entry. Although I briefly considered concocting a harrowing story about a travel mix-up that rendered the entire team (except Jon) ticketless, forcing us to embark upon a two-week long cross-country, hitchhiking nightmare during which time we subsisted on nothing but mini-muffins and diet coke while wearing white princess tennis dresses, I responded simply "Oh...yeah...mah b." So eloquent. Anyways, it seems the only method of remedying my masterful procrastination is to once again write an exceedingly long entry, starting with a recap of the end of our spring break trip. Spoiler alert: we made it back.
Our final three matches of the trip were NAIA Azusa Pacific University, Division III Redlands University, and Division I Cal State Fullerton. The day we played Azusa was easily the hottest day of the trip and shade was scarce on and around the courts. Thankfully the air wasn't the only thing hot on the courts that day, as all of AWT, plus Jackie and Mr. Brown, noticed while we warmed up for the match. Notice to the Azusa men's team from all of AWT: we are your number one fans, and please never invest in shirts. As the match got under way (and the tanned, toned, California men of Azusa left) we regained our focus to buckle down for some of the most competitive doubles we would play on the trip. We finished the doubles round down 1-2, with only Jill Wexler and Laura Danzig pulling out a point at the number two slot. As singles went back out to their courts we knew we had an uphill battle ahead of us; not only did we need to win four out of the six matches to achieve victory, but we were playing without Carlissa King, our usual number two singles player, who was suffering from a heat-induced illness. In a lengthy battle, twin sister Laken King secured the Amherst victory by outlasting her opponent in a 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 marathon battle. Also instrumental to our win that day were Brittany Berckes, Natasha Brown, and Laura Danzig.
At Redlands the next day it was déjà vu: doubles was over and we were already down 1-2. This time Natasha and Brittany had earned our sole point, and all of us knew as we went out to start singles that we would again have to push our straining, aching bodies to their full capacity in order to beat Redland's scrappy, consistent, and competitive team. These girls really did have all the shots: high loopy spins, slices on both sides, strong first serves, and punishing approach shots. Though we pulled out the win in convincing fashion by sweeping the singles round, each match required the totality of our physical and mental energies as we knew that if we weren't fully focused on our court, the match could slip through our fingers. Especially impressing were our top four singles players, Brittany Berckes, Carlissa King, Jill Wexler, and Natasha Brown, who each pulled out long three-set victories during their fifth consecutive day of competition.
When we arrived at Cal State Fullerton on Friday, you could feel the team taking a collective sigh of relief with the knowledge that after today's match we'd finally have a blessed two days off from tennis. Far from making us complacent, this drove many of us harder as we hoped to end the trip on a high point by convincingly defeating another division-one opponent. As Anuja and I reminded one another during our doubles match, we wanted this, and we were going to leave it all out on the courts of Cal State. AWT did just that, picking up the doubles point (we were playing division one scoring in which doubles counts as one collective point, rather than three separate points) with victories at numbers two and three and dropping the back and forth battle at number one in a competitive tiebreaker. In singles we remained dominant, winning all but the top court en route to a 6-1 victory to cap off our California trip. As expected, we were all happy with our victorious results throughout the week and relieved that our bodies had managed to physically endure the taxing schedule, but the work we had left to do was apparent. Jackie reminded us in our final team huddle of the trip that "we did what we came to do" and as happy as she was about our undefeated trip, she and the team rankings had both expected nothing less from us. Nearly every team we play throughout the season will, as these teams, play us hoping for an upset and knowing that they have nothing to lose. The proverbial target on our backs may not be quite as big as in recent years, but whether we're ranked #1 or #6 in the polls, every match presents an opportunity to further establish ourselves as a team worthy of our ranking and of others' respect.
So it was with this mentality that we returned to cold and rainy Amherst, Massachusetts. Whether forced back into the cage, dodging raindrops outside, or enjoying the occasional sunny New England spring day, our points of focus have been clear: serving with purpose and doing our jobs in doubles. Nearly every practice has consisted of ample match play and various drills designed to improve our doubles skills: keeping the ball crosscourt, getting first serves in, poaching and faking as server's partner, lobbing (both topspin and slice), terminating high volleys, and keeping the ball at the other player's feet when at net. For two solid weeks our focus remained almost solely on doubles, developing strategies that, if mastered correctly, should prove beneficial to our singles play as well. Emotions inevitably ran high during many practices as our California tans quickly faded and the added pressures of schoolwork and social lives returned to our lives.
Matches thankfully recommenced this weekend with a pair of NESCAC matches against Bates on Saturday and Bowdoin on Sunday (aka today). Playing without our number one player, Brittany Berckes (who was taking a precautionary weak off to prevent some soreness from becoming an injury), posed little problem for us on Saturday. Carlissa joined Natasha at number one doubles, while the entire team moved up a spot in the singles line-up with Laura Danzig filling in at the number six spot. Against Bates no one gave up more than a combined five games as we rolled to a 9-0 win, able to preserve much needed energy for the following day against Bowdoin.
More than a simple NESCAC match, today's match against Bowdoin offered AWT a chance for revenge - last year it was this competitive and fit squad that upset us in the third round of the NCAAs. Though I wasn't even in the lineup last year, and was thus confined to the sidelines watching the upset take place, I marked this year's match on my calender as soon as the spring schedule was released, knowing that it was a chance to show that this year's team isn't just talented, we're also a team craving success and are willing to work and grind to get it. For days prior I ate the best I could, did my work in advance, envisioned myself playing Bowdoin while in practice, and even slept more than eight hours a night - a rare feat for any college student, especially myself. By the time we started our team warm up this morning I knew I'd done everything I could to prepare and, more importantly, that there was no way any Bowdoin player wanted this victory more than I did; the images from last year's upset in NCAAs, as seen from literally every angle of the Mount Holyoke tennis complex, have remained so strong in my memory and have provided such a motivational force throughout the entire year that I couldn't let this opportunity slip by. Everyone dealt with their desire for revenge in a different way, most less compulsive than my own, but the seriousness and heightened gravity of the match at hand was apparent in our demeanors at breakfast, in warm up, and as the doubles got under way.
Anuja and I rolled to a convincing 8-1 victory at the third position, but at first and second doubles the team encountered more problems. Every year Bowdoin has strong doubles teams that get the ball back consistently, play several different formations, and know how to utilize the full extent of the court; playing opposite this and in extraordinarily windy conditions we faltered and dropped each of these matches, and thus once again were forced to start the singles in the familiar position, down 1-2. Rather than dwell on these undesirable results, Jackie made the wise choice of discussing doubles once the entire match was decided and simply told us to focus, play with the wind, and get the job done in singles as she knew we could. Natasha, Laken, and myself won quickly at the three, four and five positions respectively, but by the time we were off the court each of the remaining three Amherst players, Carlissa, Jill, and Laura, had dropped the first set and knew that just one of them had to win in order to secure the Amherst victory. In the end it was our lone freshman starter Laura Danzig who pulled out a 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 win and got the job done for the team; when she began playing calmly, patiently, and setting-up points naturally she was downright to play against. Although we were relieved to have pulled out a 5-4 victory against a feisty and competitive team, knowing how much better we could have played - particularly in the doubles - made for a somber and serious post-victory mood among the team. Hopefully today's results will serve as a general wake up call that we can't be content simply relying upon our talent to win doubles matches; as Jackie emphasized, we need to realize how little we know about doubles, focus on our drills in practice, make the necessary adjustments in position, and execute our jobs fully. As matches become more plentiful in the coming weeks, practices consequentially become fewer and more crucial in fixing the manifested errors and preparing ourselves for the opponents down the road. To put it even more bluntly, in tomorrow's practice we need to get it together.
My concluding proposition: in order to atone for my aforementioned procrastination and untimely postings, I will attempt this week to post at least two more times: once following our match at Tufts on Tuesday and again after our weekend matches at home against Connecticut College and Wellesley. With that achieved, hopefully all who actually read this blog can remain up-to-date on the life and happenings among the Amherst Women's Tennis team, and Alex Gumport can have a more tasteful outlet for his boredom (at least in comparison to the confessional or fmylife.com) when the 48 hour rule leaves him with nothing better to do.
