The UTRGV Men’s Tennis Team competes against Grand Canyon University March 28 at the Orville I. Cox Tennis Center on the Edinburg campus. THE RIDER FILE PHOTO
The UTRGV Women’s Tennis Team is hosting the Western Athletic Conference Tournament from Thursday to Saturday at the H-E-B Tennis Center in Harlingen.
As of press time, the team has an overall record of 9-11 and 1-5 in conference and will have played its final regular conference game Sunday against Stephen F. Austin State University.
The Vaqueros are currently seventh in the WAC Women’s Tennis Standings and are tied with Stephen F. Austin at a 1-5 conference record.
Head coach West Nott said the team has been growing stronger after every match, but they have not been doing as well in the short WAC season.
Nott said the team’s last match against Utah Tech University was important as they wanted to improve their seeding for the tournament.
“Utah Tech and SFA are our last two games of the regular season, and they’re actually the teams with the two weakest records in the conference,” he said. “So for us, we want to build some confidence, take care of these two opponents. So SFA is the next one and we feel pretty good about our chances.”
Nott said playing the tournament at home is an advantage.
“We’re familiar with that facility and that court surface there,” he said. “The temperature, we just came back from Seattle and Utah, it’s really dry and the heat is not a factor.”
PHOTO COURTESY CLARISA CRUZ
PHOTO COURTESY CLARISA CRUZ
Nott said junior Marjorie Souza is one of the strongest players in team situations.
“She’s playing at the highest spot, which is the toughest opponents,” he said. “She’s only a junior, so she’s still improving. … Mentally, she’s really tough and she’s having a fantastic year, also in doubles, as well with different partners.”
Souza currently has a singles record of 15-5 and 4-2 in WAC.
She thinks she has been doing well during the season overall, and even though the team has had a difficult start to the WAC part of the season, they will finish in a good position.
About the upcoming match against SFA, Souza said it will prepare the team for the tournament.
“At the end of this season, we are doing better than [at] the start of the conference, so that’s good to build up some confidence for the tournament,” she said.
Senior Lea Karren said the team had some close matches but they learned from the challenges.
“We are really excited, because we are going to be hosting [the WAC Tournament],” Karren said. “That’s a big deal for us, we don’t have to go anywhere. We definitely want to win that [SFA] match because, of course, you don’t want to play [in the] first round a [Grand Canyon University] team or Tarleton [State University]. … We definitely don’t want to play any of those two teams, and for us, we want to secure that win and play all the teams that we know we can be confident to win our first round.”
UTRGV Women’s Tennis junior Marjorie Souza competes against University of Texas at Arlington junior Tara Gorinsek March 30 at the Orville I. Cox Tennis Center on the Edinburg campus. PHOTO COURTESY CLARISA CRUZ
