Nick Vernon, Campus Carrier Sports Editor
The women’s tennis team defeated Millsaps College, 5-4, on Saturday, propelling them to 6-1 overall and 2-0 in the Southern Athletic Association (SAA). The Majors fell to 4-7 and 0-1 in the SAA. On Sunday, Berry defeated Birmingham-Southern College, 5-4.
The Vikings improved to 7-1 overall and 3-0 in conference play. Birmingham-Southern recorded their first loss of the season, falling to 5-1 overall and 1-1 in the SAA.
The head coach of the Vikings, Clay Hightower, attributed the team’s success this year to experience and leadership.
“We are a pretty experienced team,” he said. “We have a couple of juniors who have been in the lineup a long time and that are the leaders of the time: Heidi Seabaugh and Kaleigh Carpenter. We have two sophomores playing one and two. Both are playing well this year.”
Sophomore Lauren Byrket said she feels the team has adjusted very well since last season.
“I definitely think that there is a big difference this year compared to last. We lost our top two players and have had to push up the line in order to compensate. We gained a few key players, but of course it’s going to be hard adjusting to these changes,” Byrket said. “I find it impressive that our team has been so successful under the circumstances, and the fact that everyone has stepped up in order to make this happen.”
Hightower noted that the team this year seems to be finding a way to win the really close matches.
“On paper, Birmingham-Southern was expected to beat us, but we did very well,” he said.
Byrrket attributed the team’s success in close matches to a positive team mentality.
“I honestly think it’s our drive to win that has allowed us to push through these tough, close matches,” she said. “I can’t put my finger on what it is, but we’ve just been clutch when it counts.”
Byrket feels the team will find success over the weekend when they play two away matches in two days over Easter weekend, at Hendrix College on Saturday and Rhodes College on Sunday.
“I can only expect a win this upcoming weekend against Hendrix,” she said. “We played well against them last year and have pushed even harder this year to keep up our winning streak.”
Hightower said he feels like his team should be the favorites in both of their upcoming matches. As for the rest of the season, Hightower said the ultimate goal is to make a return appearance in the SAA finals. However, he also noted the stingy competition his team will face.
“We would love to make it back to the SAA finals,” he said. “It’s going to be really tough to beat Sewanee. It’s going to be a bit of a dog fight with Berry, Millsaps, Centre and Birmingham-Southern.”
Hightower said following this weekend, Centre will be their next big challenge.
“Centre has a couple of new freshmen that are really strong, and that will be our next big challenge in a few weeks,” he said.
The Vikings face a tough two weeks in a row as they will play four conference games away from home in that time period.
Following their matches against Hendrix and Rhodes, the team will travel to Kentucky and Tennessee to play Centre and Sewanee, respectively, on April 11 and 12.