The ladies of the tennis team have had their ups and downs this season. It also appears that mother nature has had it out for them. Five of their 19 matches this year have been rained out, but despite those setbacks, the Beacons got a hard earned spot in the LEAC playoffs.
According to head coach Eric Berg, “With a season there is always a lot of ups and downs, but with clinching the playoff spots we’re on a high now and just trying to stay focused.” Berg has taken the team to new heights since he took over in 2007. The program had actually been shut down since 2001, but UMB decided to give it another go. They picked Berg as the man to bring it back, and obviously that decision has paid off.
A big force behind the Beacons’ success this season has been first singles star Anitra Kloczewiak. The junior from Newton took over the first slot in her freshman year and hasn’t looked back. She recently set the UMB record for most wins in a career. When asked about this season, she said, “I think it’s gone great even from the beginning. We started off with only five players on the team, which was a huge problem that we had, but we got additions to the team and they’ve been awesome.”
The “core five” for the team have been coming up huge for the Beacons this season. According to Kloczewiak, “Everyone has stepped up, especially the five core players.” Berg agreed. He said, “We’ve got a core group of veterans[…] I’d say it’s really been a team effort. On any given day it may be a different person in a different match.” He also praised Kloczewiak and Hieu Nguyen. He said, “Anitra has been playing number one singles and doubles for her entire career and Hieu has been having a phenomenal year. She is 11-1 playing fifth singles.”
According to Kloczewiak, “It’s so hard to win as a team[…] we always try to win doubles first, if we win those, it gives you the edge over the other team… we are much more of a doubles team but recently we’ve been getting better on singles.” Team tennis is structured so that if a team wins five of their nine matches, then they get the win. Doubles play first, so having good doubles pairs is advantageous.
Despite good play this season, the ladies were overmatched when they took on one seed Plymouth State in the opening round on the LEAC tournament. This is one of the most successful years the program has had since it was reinstated in 2007, and it has laid the foundation for potentially unparalleled success in 2012. The ladies will be back in action this spring when they practice with the men’s team and compete in a few scrimmages and tournaments.