The Pioneer women's tennis team continued its strong spring schedule on Saturday, April 2 versus Coe in a home match and then on Friday, April 8 at a neutral site against Wheaton.
Against Coe, the Grinnell women posted their best scores of the spring season, despite falling 6-3 in the dual match. Coach Andy Hamilton commented, "We purposely put together a tough spring schedule to get our squad ready for the NCAA qualifying tournament at the end of April. Our results from the Coe match show that we are making up ground against the better programs."
The No. 2 team of Anushka Joshi and Megan Jans posted the only doubles win as they sailed 8-2 against a veteran pair from Coe. Anelia Cogan and Judith Fan were competitive at No. 1 falling 8-5 as were Sydney Banach and Lily Hamilton at No. 3, bowing with the same score.
In singles both Fan and Cogan posted wins at No. 1 and 3 singles, respectively. Fan posted an impressive 6-0, 6-0 win and Cogan went 6-1 and held on at 7-5 in the second set. At No. 4 singles Anushka Joshi fell in an extremely competitive match, 7-6, 4-6, 6-2.
"In the Coe match we had all three doubles teams playing pretty well and there were three women who were solid in singles. Our goal now has to be getting the players to all play well in all nine positions," reported Hamilton.
In the match against Wheaton, the Pioneers struggled to get their games going in doubles as all three teams lost by a mark of 8-2. "I thought we had trouble with both pace and consistency in doubles," noted Hamilton, "and some of that may have been due to playing on a new surface at a neutral site."
The Pioneers warmed up and played better in singles. Fan and Cogan were very competitive at the No. 1 and 2 positions as both players stayed on the court for two hours of play. Fan fell 7-5, 6-2 and Cogan went down 6-1, 7-5.
"I am really encouraged with the play from Judith and Amelia. Being competitive at the top of our lineup will be important at the end of April," exclaimed Hamilton.
He continued, "Against our up-coming competition and versus the Midwest Conference, I expect us to be more competitive in the other four singles positions as a group. That being noted, in our matches so far this spring Megan, Lily, Anushka and Minna Montgomery have all produced good results in at least one match. So, our goal now should be for better consistency."
