This weekend, both the No. 5 men and No. 10 women Maroons will travel to Indianapolis, where they will take on Denison and host DePauw. The South Siders are coming off dominant performances against Hope and Lewis earlier this month on both the men’s and women’s sides. They will look to carry that momentum through this weekend in preparation for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) DIII National Indoor Championships later this season.
The women’s team is undefeated this indoor season in its three matches, dropping only one game out of 18 so far. They will face No. 22 Denison on Saturday and No. 25 DePauw on Sunday, which should give them a good idea of how they will stack up at the ITA Indoor Championships at the beginning of March. Regarding the level of competition this weekend, second-year Adrienne Travis said, “We are really looking forward to this weekend's matches against Denison and DePauw. These will be our first away matches of the season, so we are looking forward to really bringing it.”
Denison has only played once this season, losing 2–7 to Northwestern Ohio. DePauw has not played any indoor matches yet this season, but they had a doubles team in the semi-finals and two singles players in the round of 16 in the ITA Regional Championships last fall. In the same tournament, the Maroons had runner-up finishes. First-year duo of Marjorie Antohi and Estefania Navarro took second place in the doubles tournament, and Antohi was also second in singles. “Both Denison and DePauw are solid teams, especially with their doubles lineup, so we will have to come out fired up from the beginning which I have no doubt we will be able to accomplish,” Travis continued.
The men’s tennis team is also undefeated in 2017. The men have played just three matches, but their focus has been on improving in practice. The matches against No. 33 Denison and No. 34 DePauw this weekend will be a good indication of where the team is as a whole, according to fourth-year Max Hawkins. The opportunity to play back-to-back matches will give the team the chance to improve and help direct the focus of next week’s training before the ITA Indoor Championships the following weekend. On the subject of practice, Hawkins said, “We are looking forward to finally doing what we’ve been doing in practice in matches. We’ve played a ton of practice matches, and we’ve been able to work on what we need, so I expect us to come out with a competitive fire from start to finish since that’s what we’ve been doing since our first practice.”
Both men and women will play against DePauw outdoors this weekend, despite being in the thick of the indoor season. The Maroons have been practicing both inside and outside in preparation for the weekend’s competition. Hawkins said, “We’ll have to make adjustments, but it’ll make us tougher, and that will definitely help us down the road. Our team and our coaches are locked in, and we don’t care where we play; whether it be indoors or outdoors, we’ll be ready.”
Both squads begin play on Saturday at 2 p.m., while on Sunday, the women begin at 10 a.m. and the men take the court at 12:30 p.m.
