Last year’s women’s tennis team, with only one senior, six sophomores and three freshmen, struggled during the 2006-2007 season.
While the team has lost Tori Santoro ’08, it gained experience and emerging leadership – eight of last year’s letterwinners have returned, including the team’s top seven singles players and the starting three doubles tandems. The team will be led by Captain Elizabeth Collector ’09 who, with number one singles player Ania Preneta ’09, finished with a team best 9-4 doubles record. The Cardinals are also joined this year by Linda McDougal ’11, the top-ranked player in Nepal.

During the summer many of the team’s returning players, such as Alexandra Sirois ’09, looked to strengthen their game. Sirois specializes in doubles play but hopes to play both singles and doubles this year.
As a team, the Cardinals still aim to improve several aspects of their game throughout the season.

“This year, I will continue to focus on perfecting my net game by cleaning up my serve and volley strategy,” Sirois said. “I am going to work on increasing my confidence in the backcourt. Ninety-nine percent of the players in the NESCAC stay back and hit; if I can work on putting pressure on them by having a solid backcourt and net game, I think I’ll do well.”

Despite finishing last year’s season with strong wins, including a 5-0 defeat of Hamilton, a 9-0 victory over NESCAC conference rival Smith, and a solid 8-1 triumph at Mount Holyoke in the regular season finale, the team failed to qualify for the NESCAC Tournament. The squad showed tremendous effort but completed its conference schedule with a 3-5 record, and finished the overall season with a successful 11-7 Dual-Match record.

The team kicks off its 2007 fall campaign Tuesday with a match at home against Springfield College.