Tennis returned home for their last invitational of the fall season. The Lady Lions will start their spring season at home on Jan. 28 against LSU-Alexandria.
Nikisun Shrestha/The Lion's Roar
The Lady Lions tennis team hosted the George E. Fourmaux Fed Cup Invitational last week. The tournament featured six teams from the Southland Conference. The Lady Lions finished joint second with a combined effort of 15-10 over the weekend.
The tournament was a tribute to the former assistant coach for the Lady Lions, George E. Fourmaux.
“He helped us for a few years as an assistant coach,” said Head Coach Jason Hayes. “He also taught the kinesiology classes here. He passed away this February and it’s just a thing we wanted to do to honor him.”
The players were pleased to play on their home court and were happy with the overall performance of the team.
“It felt great,” said junior Madina Vorotnikova. “This is our home court. This is where we play and that’s where the team spirit is. I feel that we did some really good things. We won a lot. We lost some, but we learned from it and this tournament is like a reflection of what we’re gonna do in spring.”
The coach commended the players on the hard work put on by the team in the tournament.
“I’m really happy with how hard we played,” said Hayes. “I think that our attitude and effort were fantastic. Sometimes we didn’t win, but again, our effort was always fantastic.”
Hayes feels the players have more things to work on before the spring season starts on Jan. 28.
“I mean, obviously, we’ve got a lot of work to do,” said Hayes. “We’re gonna need to spend a lot of time on our physical conditioning. Tactically, we need to get better, but I think we did a lot of things really positively. We need to just play a little cleaner, make a few less mistakes. I think this tournament gives us a good springboard to start the actual spring season with.”
Vorotnikova also feels the team can improve on some technical aspects but that they are emotionally strong.
“We just need to improve on our game because our emotional level is great,” said Vorotnikova. “We support each other and the only thing we need to improve is actual tennis.”
The tournament was played in a round-robin format. The matches were divided into four singles and one doubles match. Dalina Dahlmans and Vorotnikova both had an impressive 3-0 singles record. Fleur Holtkamp and Natalie Duran had an overall record of 2-1 in singles. In doubles play, Dahlmans and Holtkamp registered a 2-0 record.
Hayes wanted the players to be more aggressive in the tournament and later in the season as well.
“I think for us to be where we wanna be, where we need to be, to be successful as the year goes on, we need to be just a little more aggressive each time we step out on the court,” said Hayes.
The players are hopeful of having a great season ahead.
“I think we’re gonna have a really good season in spring,” said Vorotnikova. “We’re all in this together. We have a good relationship with each other. As a team, we’re gonna win more than if we play just with ourselves. I think we’re gonna do great in spring.”
Junior Dany Raygadas was one of three players to earn a straight victory in their 5-0 win against McNeese State.
Nikisun Shrestha/The Lion's Roar
