Lady Bulldogs Tennis Goes 2-1 in Weekend Play

NORMAL -- “Seeing Morgen’s hands shaking after her warm-up was a bit disheartening,” commented head coach Thomas Colvin. “The temps weren’t quite so bad to start the day, but things got worse all afternoon.”

Colvin was speaking about junior Morgen Shaw, but he could have been talking about anyone of his six Lady Bulldogs as they prepared for the two-match day scheduled at the Alabama State Tennis Center on Saturday, February 11.

In the first match, the Ladies of A&M could not seem to shake the cold and were swept in doubles by the Lady Owls of Kennesaw State. A&M tried to brave the cold temps and bone chilling wind, but were also swept in singles play. Junior Denise Cherry took her match to third set, but eventually fell 6-4, 5-7, 1-0(10-4) to close out the warmest match of the day.

In the second match against rival Alabama State, the Lady Bulldogs were not on the court as long as in the first match. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the temperatures fell all afternoon and into the night.

The Maroon & White was able to win the doubles point and began singles play up 2-0 as ASU only played with five players. An injured Nathalie Lorenzo was unable to complete her match at #1 singles, giving A&M’s Morgen Shaw the win and the ladies from Normal a 3-0 lead.

A&M’s Shannon Warner, Denise Cherry, Jasmine Cherry and Jessica Taylor all got straight set victories while Christa Rogers was awarded a win by default 7-0.

On Monday night, Alabama A&M faced off at home against a much improved Stillman College. Playing at the Huntsville Tennis Center, the ladies would be pressed for time as a winter weather storm system was quickly approaching.

All three of the AAMU doubles teams were successful against Stillman, giving the one point lead to the Lady Bulldogs as singles play began.

In singles, the Ladies of Maroon showed the toughness it will take as the SWAC season draws near.

“I was really pleased at most of what I saw today,” Colvin mentioned. “There were a few signs of frustration at not being able to do some things when we wanted to, but that’s tennis. I was pleased to see how adjustments were easily made that allowed us to finish this match.”

In sweeping the singles matches, the Lady Bulldogs gave up only 16 total games, eight of them coming in a 9-8 pro set win by Christa Rogers.

“We’re growing. We learn and we move ahead,” Colvin stated. “We’ve seen some things that we hope to incorporate into what we do to give us a few more options.”

Print Friendly Version