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Tiger tennis team bounces back
9/28/2008
By CONOR NICHOLL
cnicholl@dailynews.net
Fort Hays State University tennis coach Brian Flax brought his team together and issued a challenge after they lost 6-3 to Newman University in Friday's home opener. He asked the Tigers to simply play solid.
"That one shot you hit may be great, but the other nine that go out are costing us games and costing us matches," Flax said.
The message worked Saturday against Colorado Christian University. The Tigers bounced back with a 6-3 victory at the FHSU courts. Fort Hays improved to 2-3 this season and split its two home matches this weekend.
"I thought we just played a lot smarter," Flax said. "I know it sounds pretty easy, but we weren't making the silly simple errors. It kind of started in warm up. I could just tell that some of the drills we did yesterday we weren't very good and today we were doing the drills cleaner."
Flax, which started five freshmen in the top five singles positions, won five of the six singles matches and one of three doubles competitions. Against Newman, they went 1-5 in singles and 2-1 in doubles.
"You challenge them, how much do you really want to win, what does it mean to you," Flax said. "You don't know how much they are going to come out the next day and sure enough they came out and they played real well."
Freshman Krista Lindsey improved to 6-6 with a 6-2, 6-4 victory at No. 3 singles. At No. 5, Val Harris, a Hays High School graduate, moved up from No. 6.
Harris responded with a 7-5, 7-5 victory and moved to 6-3 overall, the only Tiger with better than a .500 record. She also was the lone Fort Hays player who won both singles matches Friday and Saturday.
"So far Valerie has stayed within herself," Flax said. "She hasn't tried to do too much."
At No. 6, sophomore Alexis Crowther split the first two sets 4-6 and 6-4 before she fell behind 6-1 in the supertiebreaker and eventually came back to win 10-8. Freshman Kelsey Bigando earned a 6-0, 6-0 victory at No. 2 singles, while freshman Amanda Henkel won 6-2, 6-2 at No. 4 singles.
Bigando and Henkel combined to win seven games in four sets against Newman before they won Saturday. It marked Bigando's first victory all year and Amanda's second. Like nearly every player on the Tigers, Bigando and Henkel are playing collegiate tennis for the first time.
"In high school, boom-boom, two or three groundstrokes somebody makes a mistake or somebody hits a winner," Flax said. "That doesn't happen in college. It doesn't happen against the good teams, the great teams or even the average teams. You have to work harder to win those points and we are trying to adjust to that."
Sophomore Kelly Smidt, one of the Tigers' two returners, teamed with freshman Kayla Jarvis to win 8-4.
Friday
Newman 6, Fort Hays 3
Fort Hays started out strong, winning two of the three doubles matches. But the Tigers won just one of the six singles matches to los he dual.
"We lost five of six singles," Flax said. "Big letdown after winning two of three doubles."
Freshman Brittney Shea teamed up with Lindsey to win 9-8 (7-1) at No. 2 doubles, while Jarvis and Smidt won at No. 3 doubles, 8-4.
The lone Tiger to win in singles was Harris at No. 6, by a 7-5, 6-1 score.
| Scoreboard | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Sport | Date | Opponent | Score |
| 2/18 | SW Baptist | L 66-53 | |
| 12/1 | Oklahoma - Panhandle | L 66-60 (OT) | |