Women's tennis team gears up for MWC Championships

by Alex Woodle
The Pioneer women’s tennis team wrapped up two long weeks of play last weekend, ending with three tough matches in two days. They won two of the three to move to 5-3 (2-0 MWC) heading into their final season match Sunday.

The stretch began with the ITA Regional Championships, a very competitive singles and doubles tournament against some of the best players in the region, on the weekend of Sept. 22. Shweta Khajuria ’07 defeated two opponents to advance to the third round before falling 6-3, 6-4.

“We actually improved our score this year,” coach Barb Waite said, explaining that the team goal is to win more total individual games this year than last year.

The team followed the ITA Regionals with a match versus Simpson College last Saturday. No. 2 singles player Rachel Engh ’08 missed the match due to illness, but the Pioneers managed to take four of six singles matches and all three doubles matches to move their season record to 4-2. Khajuria, Maya Lipert ’09, Katie Colver ’09 and Jill Akiyama ’10 all won their singles matches, while Margaret Block ’08 and Laura Goffman ’09 both lost close matches.

Doubles play, which has been a consistent problem for the team this season, was something the team has focused on improving this season, according to Coach Waite.

“We used a new strategy [in doubles matches],” Lipert said. “We came up to the net more and played more aggressively.”

Later in the day last Saturday, Grinnell faced Luther College from the strong Iowa conference. Khajuria earned the only win for Grinnell in singles play, 6-3, 6-1. The doubles teams played close matches, with Khajuria and Engh playing to an 8-6 loss and Lipert and Colver losing 8-5.

Coach Waite was not fazed by the loss, “For us to beat Luther would have been an upset,” she said. “We’ve been working hard and it’s starting to pay off big time.”

The Pioneers went up against conference opponent Beloit College last Sunday, one day after the Luther loss. Although Grinnell won 7-2, there were several close matches in both singles and doubles play.

Khajuria and Engh both lost in singles, but each forced their final sets to a seventh point. Lipert, Colver, Block and Akiyama all won, with Colver forcing a third set and winning it 7-5.

“It was really tough, waking up Sunday feeling like you had played a few hours of tennis the other day is not the easiest thing,” Colver said of playing on back-to-back days.

For Lipert, the quick turnaround took a toll on more than her body. “I was cranky,” she said.

Coach Waite looks forward to their next match on Sunday, when she hopes the Pioneers “beat Lake Forest and send a message to the northern [division of the Midwest] Conference.”

The match starts at 10:00 a.m. at the home tennis courts, and is the last match for the Pioneers before the MWC Championship tournaments next weekend in Madison, Wisc.