Hello Terp Fans!

After some tough and disappointing losses against BC and Harvard, the Terps were ready to go back on the courts and prepare for the next match against Towson in two weeks. The losses against BC and Harvard showed us that we still had to improve individually and more importantly as a team. For many of us, tennis has always been an individual sport, but college tennis is all about being part of a team. To be part of a team means that you're not only responsible for your own actions, but also for your teammate's actions. As Coach Panova says, "A team is only as strong as it weakest player."

The first week of practice contained some struggles and challenges that we had to face as a team. One of the challenges was to lead practice on our own. The coaches were at practice to help, but wouldn't tell us what to do. The first time we had to lead practice on our own was quite unexpected, which resulted in an interesting and uncoordinated practice. The next day, we got a second chance on leading our own practice. This time we knew what was expected from us. The practice was better coordinated and we had more energy as the day before, but we still had important improvements to make as a team.

The second week started off with the giving out iPads to all student-athletes by the athletic department, funded by the NCAAs Student-Athlete Opportunity Fund. Of course, we were all very excited to get the iPads that will help us in the classroom and help us academically when we are on the road for matches. After getting our iPads before practice on Monday, the Terps were ready to work together, improve individually and as a team, and to prepare for the match against Towson. The next few days of practice showed off the improvements we're making as a team, but the real test would come against Towson on Friday.

On Friday, we had our third home game of the season against Towson. After the losses against BC and Harvard, the team was looking for a W and to implement the improvements we made over the past two weeks. We secured the doubles point quickly with wins at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles, while No. 3 doubles was 7-2 up. After a short break we went into singles where we cruised to wins on 5 out of 6 courts. Only Gabby had a tight match at No. 5 singles, but secured the win and our third clean sweep of the season by winning the super tiebreaker 10-2.

The 7-0 win over Towson was a great win for us a team, especially since we were able to implement what we had been working on for the past two weeks. There are still things we will have to keep working on individually and as a team, but the important part is that we're getting better every day. Overall, the struggles and challenges of the past two weeks have made us stronger as a team and we're looking forward to take on No. 70 Columbia and Richmond this upcoming weekend to get some more W's.

Go Terps!

-Vroni