Women's tennis opens season with victory

The women's tennis team won their first match of the season last night in Philips Gym by a score of 6-3 over Malone College. Senior captains Leigh Ann Totty and Tara Sievers led the way, each winning their respective singles matches before teaming up to win the first doubles match 8-6.

The players were obviously pleased with their performances both individually and as a team. "I though we played really well," Sievers said.

Head Coach Don Hunsinger added it was especially good for the first match of the season.

The night featured two big comebacks for Oberlin, both in singles matches. Sixth seed sophomore Robin Richardson bounced back from a first set 6-7 (3-7) loss to Malone's Kristen Beach, taking the final two sets 7-5, 6-1.

Totty, despite the successful night, started off slowly. In her first seed singles match, she lost the first set 1-6, but through a combination of strong, accurate serves and aggressive advances to the net, she took the final two games 6-2, 6-1 over Malone's Jocelyn Iwenusa.

Sievers breezed through her third seed singles match, easily winning 6-3, 6-0 over Michelle Tyler. Second seed junior Jill Brockelman, another star of the night, also easily took her singles match, overpowering her opponent 6-2, 6-3. She then teamed up with sophomore Claudia Martinez to form the second seed doubles team, and they rolled over the Malone combo of Tyler and Julie Kirsch. Kirsch had earlier provided Malone with one of their two singles victories, defeating sophomore Beth Krupski 6-0, 6-3 in the fourth seed match. The other Malone singles victory came of the racket of Lee Ann Zimmerman, who defeated Oberlin junior Aeli Jeon 6-3, 6-2. Zimmerman later helped to give Malone their third victory on the night, which was a comeback victory over Oberlin's third seed doubles team of Krupski and Richardson, 9-7.

Their success was not an easy feat, though. "They were a solid team," Sievers said.

The victory came not as the beginning of the season but as a continuation of a season already begun weeks ago with the onset of training sessions, according to Hunsinger.

"I think we've improved already this year. Having all the coaches together at practice helps," Hunsinger said. Hunsinger said that the team has nowhere to go but up, particularly where footspeed and mental toughness are concerned. He also pointed out that everyone on the team was already playing at a higher level of competition than they had previously. "Everybody moved up a space in singles," he said.

That was not a problem, however, least of all for first seed Totty. "The competitive spirit-I have a little too much sometimes," she said.

All set: Jill Brockelman prepares to return serve during Thursday's tennis match. The Yeowomen won 6-3. (photo by Jacob Kramer-Duffield)