The San Diego State women’s tennis team finished up the preseason this past weekend with their Fall Classic Tournament II, the last competitive tennis tournament until the season starts in late January 2015. The tournament spanned from Friday through Sunday, including both singles and doubles brackets, gearing the Aztecs up for the season ahead.
The Aztecs faced some stern competition this weekend that included schools from all around the United States. Senior Kristin Buth noted the value that this early tournament can have on getting the team ready for the upcoming season.
“Having competition that we normally wouldn’t play, for example two schools from Texas, Missouri, and a few others has us facing better teams than the first tournament which will help us improve for the season,” Buth said.
The most successful schools of the weekend were the University of Missouri and University of Washington, which claimed multiple bracket titles on Sunday. Other teams that won a bracket this weekend were Air Force Academy, University of Denver, University of California, Irvine, and University of California, Santa Barbara.
The Aztecs did manage to defend home turf by claiming a singles title from the play of senior Hailey Johnson who had the most successful weekend for SDSU. The Aztecs had an up and down weekend with both their doubles and singles play as they finished Friday 3-6 in singles and 2-2 in the doubles draw, knocking out some key players early.
They rebounded for a better day on Saturday in which they finished 5-4 in singles and 2-2 in doubles but finished the tournament with their best day on Sunday. The ladies went 5-2 in singles and 3-1 in doubles in their last day of competitive tennis before the start of the season.
Junior Kennedy Davis, who claimed a Sunday victory in a gritty match was pleased with her victory but knows she as well as the rest of the team, have some things to work on before January.
“I got the result I wanted, and played okay though I know I could have been more aggressive,” Kennedy said.
This optimism from her and Buth — players who know what this team can do — have aimed for claiming the Mountain West title and making it to the NCAA tournament.
Whether this team is ready to climb that mountain will have to wait to be seen. Until then, they can start at the summit beginning Jan. 24 when they host a double header against University of California, Riverside and California State University, Fullerton.
