The Massachusetts women’s tennis team is looking to close out its fall dual meet season with a win when it faces Connecticut at home on Wednesday.
The Minutewomen opened their fall season on Sept. 28 with a sweep of Providence, as UMass won all six singles and all three doubles matches. Minutewoman coach Judy Dixon said that the season opener was important to get out all of “the nerves,” especially for the team’s underclassmen.
“I think that [the players] feel relieved,” she said. “Now we can get on with what we need to work on.”
Despite the clean sweep, Dixon said that there are still many areas that the team must improve on. Concerning doubles play, which the coach said is “critical to [their] success,” she thinks that the team needs to work on its new partner combinations, since there are no doubles pairs returning from last year’s squad.
Dixon added that injuries have presented a challenge, as she has not yet had a full practice with all 11 team members being healthy and able to participate.
“The UConn match will be the first time that I will hopefully get to choose matchups, and not just play who is healthy,” she said.
The Huskies are also coming off a starting win to their fall schedule. Dixon said that she expects UConn to “come in hungry” for revenge, as the Minutewomen shut out the Huskies last year.
“[UConn] is getting better and better,” Dixon said. “The quality of tennis should be about even, but we should be mentally tougher than they are.”
According to Dixon, the play by the team’s three seniors (Sonia Bokhari, Yuliana Motyl and Jessica Podlofsky) will be important on Wednesday. All three won their singles matches last year against the Huskies.
Dixon also said that she is looking for further improvement from freshmen Aarzoo Malik and Anna Woosley.
Malik is “off to a good start,” according to Dixon, but must improve on “shot selection and focus.” Malik is scheduled to play in the No. 2 singles match, likely against highly touted UConn freshman Emma Alderman.
“It is going to be a well-fought tennis match that can go either way,” Dixon said.
As for Woosley, Dixon said that she is a “really good ball striker,” but must work on her “fitness, footwork and confidence level.”
UMass has won 10 straight matches against the Huskies. The Minutewomen’s last loss to UConn came in 2002 on the road. Dixon said that she wants to “continue the trend that [the team] has set” against the Huskies.
“In every sport with UConn is a good rivalry,” she said. “They like to beat us, and we like to beat them.”
Anthony Chiusano can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @a_chiusano24.
