The womens’ tennis team opened up their season with a three game road trip. The Bucs are coming off a successful season, ending their past season with a loss in the SoCon conference championship. Building off the success of last year will be important and feasible.

The team has four returning seniors leading the charge, along with Head Coach Ricardo Rojas, entering his second year as head coach.

Late season success starts with early season challenges, and the Bucs faced that early in their first few games of the season. The first came in Virginia against the Virginia Tech Hokies. ETSU sent three pairs of doubles, and although the matches were competitive, all three were defeated.

Four more singles matches occurred afterward, with Virginia Tech sweeping the meeting.

Just a day later, the Bucs traveled from Blacksburg, Virginia to Knoxville, Tennessee, to face the Vols. The Bucs sent two pairs of doubles, Ioanna Markesini (Athens, Greece) and Alory Pereira (Sao Paulo, Brazil) played first, but unfortunately fell 6-2 to the Vols.

Alejandra Morales (Santiago, Chile) and Andrea Pascual-Larrinaga (Basauri, Spain) had similar results, losing 6-1.

To cap off the weekend, the Bucs traveled from Knoxville to Memphis to battle the Tigers. After a long weekend of playing, ETSU fell 5-0 on Sunday afternoon.

Although they did not steal a match once over the weekend, there is a lot to learn from losses. The Bucs traveled over 600 miles and played 16 matches in the span of 72 hours. These matches also came against some of the top ranked teams and players in the country.

Adversity in the beginning of the season prepares a team for postseason success, and the Bucs have plenty of season left to overcome adversity, starting next Saturday when they host the Tusculum College Pioneers.

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