The Alabama women’s tennis team defeated the Washington Huskies 5-2 on Feb. 15 at the Roberta Alison Baumgardner Indoor Tennis Facility.
Head coach Jenny Mainz was hoping to see the Crimson Tide carry over the confidence and energy it displayed earlier this month at the ITA National Indoor Championships in Charlottesville, Va.
“I thought the energy was good,” Mainz said. “I thought we came out to work. The most important thing is we keep getting a little bit better every week and this was a good match to play and get under our belt.”
In the doubles portion of the match, the Tide won 2 out of the 3 matches and earned one point toward the overall team score. Alabama’s second doubles team consisted of Junior Mary-Anne Macfarlane and Sophomore Emily Zabor who defeated their opponents from Washington 8 games to 3.
The freshmen duo of Maya Jansen and Natalia Maynetto were the Tide’s third doubles team. Jansen and Maynetto came back to beat Washington’s third doubles team 8 games to 6.
“We came out in doubles and everybody was ready to go,” Macfarlane said. “We were ready to work and be aggressive and that’s the biggest thing for us.”
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The Tide only needed to win 3 of 6 singles matches to win the overall team match. Alabama went out and won 4 of the 6 matches. Macfarlane, Jansen and Maynetto all won in straight sets. Macfarlane won her match 6-4 and 6-1, Jansen won 6-4 and 6-3, and Maynetto won both sets of her match 6-3.
Senior Antoina Foehse also won in straight sets and only lost won game in the whole match. Foehse won her match 6-1 and 6-0.
“Foeshe right now is hot, just hot,” Mainz said. “She is playing with so much confidence and is stepping into the court.”
The mindset for the Tide headed into the match was just to keep working and improving and play as hard as it possibly can.
“I told the team before the match we just want to keep getting better,” Mainz said. “Focus on what we can control, focus on keep getting better and to play every point like there is no consequence.”
Alabama will host Texas Tech on Feb. 22 at 5 p.m. at the Roberta Alison Baumgardner. This will be the Tide’s final match before starting conference play on Friday, March 1. To get ready for the match against the Red Raiders the Tide will continue to do what it’s been doing all season, competing and working hard.
“We finished with a lot of energy and momentum,” Mainz said. “We competed well and we’re just going to keep getting better and we’re going to get ready and better for Texas Tech.”
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