The Bowling Green tennis team finished up match play at the UC Invitational yesterday with sophomore Hannah Drayton and freshman Megan Miller each winning a pair of matches.
The two day event included the Falcons, the University of Cincinnati, Xavier University and Ball State University.
The team played singles matches against Xavier and doubles against Ball State and Cincinnati on the first day of action. The Falcons showed a lot of improvement as they competed against Xavier, a team who easily beat them just a month ago.
“I was very proud of the way the girls fought and competed today,” head coach Olga Elkin said. “When we played Xavier a month ago we got blown off the court. Today, three matches went to third-set tiebreakers and we had chances in the other three matches. Overall, I saw a ton of improvement from each and every girl.”
Only one of those tiebreakers would end in a Bowling Green victory. Sophomore Brittany Plaszewski won her first set in a fourth flight match over Xavier’s Lauren Ghidotti, 6-3. Ghidotti won the second set 6-4 to force the tiebreaker. The breaking set was close the whole way, but Plaszewski came out on top to win her last set 11-9 and to pick up the Falcons their first win over Xavier this season.
Miller and fellow freshman Maddy Adams were the other two to force tiebreakers on the first day. Miller dropped her last set 10-6 and Adams lost her last set 10-8, each of them losing their opening matches to Xavier.
On the second day, Drayton and Miller competed against Xavier at the second doubles flight. The match was a Bowling Green win as the pair took the match 8-5. The Drayton/Miller duo also defeated Cincinnati in a second flight doubles match to go 2-1 overall on the weekend.
“We started out very slow on all three courts of doubles today,” Elkin said. “We were able to pick it up as the matches went on, but at this level we can’t afford to start slow.”
As a whole, the team won only five matches during this invite. However, the young team is still finding what works for them.
“Overall, I was happy with the weekend and the fall season,” Elkin said. “We didn’t get the results we wanted, both this weekend and during the fall as a whole, but we made huge improvements.”
Now through three tournaments, the Falcons know things to focus on in order to make those improvements.
“Since the BGSU invitational, we as a team have been working on consistency, and how to be aggressive on the right shots to set you up during the point,” Miller said.
Freshman Emily Witt has also noticed things to work on individually to improve the team.
“I have definitely worked on consistency and going out and hitting a lot of balls since the BGSU Invite,” Witt said. “Having too many unforced errors previously, it’s important to just go back to basics by grinding out long cross-court rallies and practice target hitting.”
This invite ends the fall portion of the team schedule. The next competition is not until Jan. 23, when they will meet the University of Detroit at the Perrysburg Tennis Center.
