ENC’s women’s tennis welcomes five new members to the team this season.
Over half of the team is new this year; only four players from last year’s team have returned to play this season, creating a 9-member team for the fall 2013 season.
New members include freshman Hannah Larivere (Biddeford, Maine), freshman Sarah Layton (Bonney Lake, Wash.), sophomore Kelsie Griffes (Dover, N.H.), sophomore Jordan Price (Snow Hill, Md.), junior Bethany Mohnkern (Petersburg, Pa.), and junior Victoria Lu (Braintree, Mass.).
Having such a young team will create challenges, senior Kelsey Waddle (Olathe, Kan.) said, especially getting used to new doubles partners.
The women’s team lost their top three players to graduation last May. No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 singles, as well as No. 1 and No. 2 doubles, had to be replaced and rearranged this season due to the loss of players.
Waddle views this situation positively, though, seeing potential in the future for the women’s team.
“Because we are such a young team, we can only get better. I think in the next few years, we’ll have a very solid team,” Waddle said.
Currently, the team is 1-6 for the season and 0-5 in the conference. Last year’s team was 2-10, 0-8 in the CCC.
“We’re going out to every match like we can win it and play that way. We set expectations for ourselves match by match,” Waddle said.
The team’s goals this year are as simple as this, stated Waddle: “We really just play to glorify God and have fun. We know we aren’t super competitive, so we just take every match as a learning experience.”