Following their third consecutive CCIW championship, the North Central women’s tennis team is looking to make another run to the CCIW overall title and become established at the national level.
The team is coming off its most successful season. With an overall record of 22-6 and a perfect conference record with 14 wins and 0 losses. After winning the conference, the team went to nationals, winning their first match against Franciscan University. But their season came to an end against number 5 ranked Middlebury College.
Now with a new set of matches to be played and six newcomers entering the fray, the team will have to look upon their upperclassmen leaders to achieve success both on and off the court.
Growing closer
Of 13 players on the women’s tennis roster, 6 are freshmen and it was an uphill battle for coach Ryan Jump to recruit them. With lofty expectations, Coach Jump needed the freshmen to step up as much as possible.
“The offseason was challenging for our program,” says Jump talking about how the team grew closer as the season goes on, “Being a very young squad with new leadership, it’s been very encouraging to see the bond grow from when we started up again this spring, and I believe this is the closest group we’ve had since I’ve been at North Central.”
With this newfound camaraderie amongst the women on the team, freshman Kensington Payne was way more comfortable.
“At first, it was nerve-racking joining a team with people I have never met before,” says Payne. “As we continue on throughout our season, we continue to grow with each other. It is so nice to know that if something bad happened to anyone, we would all have each other’s backs.”
The calmness has shown as Payne won the CCIW Player of the Week award in October for her performance against Wheaton. It has also been a relief for the upperclassmen, such as Mikayla Edquiban, who has had to step up and lead this young team to victory.
“We all hung out and tried to get to know each other more because there were 6 freshmen that joined our team,” says Edquiban, “we have gotten closer and closer over the course of the season because we travel with 8 girls that compete in all our matches in the spring.”
Stepping up
With all the inexperienced players blending in with the veterans, Coach Jump will have to rely on them throughout the year as they continue their season.
“We’re going through a gauntlet of non-conference matches right now,” says Coach Jump looking to the finish line of the season, “Our goal is to still win the conference tournament at the end of April and to advance in the NCAA Tournament as far as we can. There’s a ton of time for us to grow and improve before April 20.”
The season is looking to be another success, as the Cardinals are currently 17-3. They have won their third consecutive conference title, ending unbeaten in conference play. The team will still have to play in the automatic qualifier tournament. But they will regain the number one seed in the tournament and be the favorites.
The Cards will first play at UW Whitewater on April 16. They will fight till the very end. And if all goes well, there could be some more history to be made.
