After more than a month off, the BG tennis team wraps up its fall season this weekend in State College, PA at the Penn State Fall Classic.
The two-day, three-team event will be the first action for the Falcons since they swept Wayne State 7-0 on October 7.
“It’s been forever since we’ve played a competition,” Falcon head coach Penny Dean said. “It’s really been hard to stay focused this entire time but there was excitement to practice this week. Everybody is looking forward to competing against someone besides ourselves.”
Yet the amount of competition this weekend is much less than the Falcons expected. Besides BG, only Akron and host Penn State are participating.
“We thought we were going to be there for three days and then we find out we’re playing all day Friday and just one doubles match Saturday morning and that’s it,” sophomore Ashley Jakupcin said.
But even with fewer teams it won’t be that easy for the Falcons. Senior Susie Schoenberger said the biggest challenge will be facing Big Ten opponent Penn State.
“This weekend will be pretty tough,” Schoenberger said. “Obviously playing Penn State; we’ve never played them before.”
However, the Falcons believe they have the confidence to compete with the Nittany Lions squad.
“We have a lot more confidence than we did last year,” Jakupcin said. “I think all of us this year have played so well and our confidence level has risen a big step which in tennis is huge.”
But with over a month off between matches, other aspects may affect the Falcons performance.
“On Friday everybody will play two singles matches and a doubles match,” Dean said. “It’s been so long since we competed, so the concentration and focus plays a factor for that many matches. I just think that much intensity in one day will be hard.”
Dean also said even though there are no team scores kept, the tournament is like a dual match where teams play each other all at once.
This tournament will also allow Dean to adjust her singles lineup one last time before the dual-match season begins in January.
“I’m going to play different people at the top of the lineup against the two teams and see how we do,” Dean said. “This kind of tournament actually gives me the opportunity to do that.”
No matter how tough it may be, the Falcons are just ready to play again after the long layoff.
“We’re really excited,” Jakupcin said. “I mean it’s our last tournament of the fall so we’re ready to go.”
