The women’s tennis team received an unexpected break on March 25 when they were forced to play on campus, resulting in a 9-0 win over Montreat College.
The team was scheduled to play at the Liberty Bell Tennis Center in Johnson City, but due to a scheduling conflict with the Science Hill High School teams, Milligan was forced to move their game to campus.
“It’s great having people at our match,” said sophomore Hannah Henderson. “It really gives you confidence and I know our fans can shake up our opponents.”
Henderson’s teammate Cassie Lomison agreed that having people at the match really helps motivate the team. She said that at Liberty Bell, very few Milligan fans attend the match, which doesn’t give Milligan the potential advantage that fans bring.
The women began the match with three sets of doubles and all of the Milligan doubles teams won their games easily. Then there were six singles competitions, which Milligan also won effortlessly.
“I thought it was a good outing to gain some confidence,” said Coach Marvin Glover. “Montreat's overall play has improved since last year and so the score doesn’t reflect the overall matches and how close they were.”
Glover also said the match helped give the team momentum and a lot of confidence for their match against Tennessee Wesleyan March 29.
“We all definitely think we’ll win against Wesleyan this time. If we play aggressively I know that we have the ability to win,” said Henderson.
The team has played all but one game to finish the first half of the season. They are now looking toward the second half, hoping to capitalize on the confidence they have gained in the last few matches.
“I am very excited about the second half of the season,” said junior Sara Wallingford. “We are all getting better with each match and we are definitely going to turn some heads in the remainder of the season.”
Glover said that he also expects several more wins because the team has been taking games into three sets causing closer matches.
“Our game has definitely improved,” said Henderson. “We had a lot of confidence going into our match against King, and even though we didn’t win the match, we still took that confidence into our game on Tuesday against Montreat.”