Wright State Tennis Courts | Photo by Jessica Fugett | The Wright State Guardian
Both Men’s and Women’s Tennis teams at Wright State are working on confidence and mental toughness to prepare for some upcoming challenging games this season.
A rough start
“We will be playing a lot of good teams this season and it won’t be easy to win matches against those teams,” said Param Pun, senior on the men’s team.
The men’s team has had a rough start this season, kicking off the season playing against the current number two team in the country, Ohio State University.
So far, neither the men’s or women’s team has put a win on the board, but individuals have still been performing well.
“For the men, we have been competitive at all the matches, we just haven’t been able to get everyone playing well at the same time,” said Men’s and Women’s Tennis Coach Ben Roeser.
Getting mentally stronger
According to Pun, one of the main goals for the men’s team is to do well in the Horizon League.
Among other things, Roeser thinks that they have a few things to improve to get in a good spot for the future matches.
“I think we need to get menatlly stronger and mentally tougher,” said Roeser. “We are a little less focused on results right now and just getting better every day, as individuals and a team.”
Building confidence
The women’s team has only had two matches so far, so they are mostly focusing on getting in shape and building their confidence.
“We have improved our mile times and are really working hard to support one another,” said Anna Marie Reynolds, junior on the women’s team. “We could use improvement as a team being confident, but as we play more matches this will come.”
Building confidence can prove especially difficult though when going up against difficult teams and coming home with a loss.
“Tennis is a very mental sport, so when you lose a couple matches it’s easy to lose confidence,” said Roeser.
Individual players from the women’s team have also met success on the court, including, but not limited to, Luisa Pelayo who was named Horizon League Women’s Singles Player of the Week on Jan. 28.
Reoser and both of his teams are still hopeful for the rest of the season and are aiming for a spot in the conference tournament.
“I’ve seen a lot of teams where they don’t start out really well and they end up making the championships,” said Roeser. “So we’re kind of preparing the foundation to get hot at the right time at the end of the season.”
Looking for change
Players and coaches alike both wish to see a lot of changes within the tennis program.
According to Reynolds and Pun, higher attendance at home games and having tennis courts at Wright State are two changes that are hot on people’s minds.
The tennis teams play all of their home games at the South Regency Tennis and Fitness Center in Miamisburg.
“One aspect that I wish to change is being able to have courts on campus,” said Reynolds. “If this wish was able to come true, this would change Men’s and Woman’s Wright State Tennis going forward in the future.”
Having courts on campus would be more convenient and bring more supporters out to home games.
“Getting a lot of people down to our matches, I think it’s a very exciting thing to watch,” said Roeser. “[I want to see] student-athletes who support each other on and off the court and really develop our program to the next level.”
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