After an eight-week stretch of no team competition, the No. 25-ranked Virginia women's tennis squad looks to start off the new spring season strong this weekend. The Virginia Women's Invitational tournament, planned to take place at the Boyd Tinsley Courts at the Boar's Head Sports Club, will feature the Cavaliers facing off against five challenging schools: No. 44 Alabama, No. 40 Purdue, No. 31 Tennessee, Wisconsin, and No. 13 Virginia Commonwealth.
"I think we are our biggest challenge, to be honest," Virginia coach Mark Guilbeau said. "I think all these teams are pretty even, they're all very strong. I would say we're going to worry about ourselves more than anything, and I'm not worried about our kids but just make sure we're focused on what we can do to be better."
Even though it has been quite a while since the team has played together against another school, everybody seems to be ready to get the season underway.
"I think we're all pretty excited," senior Caroline Hammond said. "All of us are pretty much ready carrying over from a good end of the season last semester. We're just touching up a couple things right now, but I think all of us will go out there really strong and excited and ready to play."
What seems to be most promising about this weekend and the upcoming season, however, is how much each player has prepared and practiced on her own time in order to improve different skills and just get in better overall shape for the spring.
Guilbeau noted that after such a long time between seasons and practices, there was still a little worry about what kind of practices the girls would maintain and what kind of focus they would keep, but he is optimistic about the team's mindset.
"They have come back, and even in this first week of practice, they look like they're ready to be in the middle of a season, so they're showing me that they're very focused, very excited," he said.
Their practice is a demonstration of the discipline and dedication each player has to the sport and the commitment each girl has made to the team by continually practicing in the off-season.
"We played a lot of tournaments, individual stuff and did a lot of individual work with our coaches," junior Lindsey Pereira said. "[We] just spent a lot of extra hours on the court, getting little odds and ends perfected for us to feel confident to walk onto the court."
With one of the toughest schedules in the country, Virginia will face eight schools ranked 26 or higher, four of them in the top 10. Six of the 12 ACC schools are ranked in the top 25.
One thing the Cavaliers will need to be successful this weekend and throughout the grueling season is leadership, and it can't come just from the sole senior and junior on the squad.
"I think there are several freshmen who have come on this team and really brought up the level of intensity of our practices, and the pace of practice and everything, that's really made us all step up," Pereira said. "It's not necessarily a verbal leadership role but some actions that they take on the court. Kristen McVitty, Jennifer Stevens and Britney Larson have all contributed to that."
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