Throughout the year, sophomore Carolina Lewis will share her thoughts on the 2015-16 women’s tennis season, what it’s like being a Division I student-athlete at West Virginia and what makes being a Mountaineer so special.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - The feeling of coming back to West Virginia University and getting back into a routine after three long months of summer is indescribable. Morgantown in the fall means that things start to kick back into full gear, so balancing athletics and academics is very important in order to be successful.
On my drive back to the mountain state, I looked forward to being reunited with my teammates along with meeting the newcomers on the team. I also was ready to compete as a team again, and jump back in the routine of 7 a.m. practice.
Over the summer, our team was all over the world, from Africa to Europe, so communication was quite a challenge, but somehow we were able to find a way to keep in touch with one another.
Before conditioning was in full swing, members of the team attended the West Virginia - Georgia Southern football game.
As for tennis, the summer months were a time for us to practice individually and work on specific aspects of our game. For me, I want to be a more aggressive player, and I plan on putting forth that effort this upcoming season. Those three months of practice will definitely help me reach my goal as an individual and as a team player this year.
The first couple weeks of classes, we were in our eight-hour week sessions, which means our primary focus was on conditioning and fine tuning our footwork. Since our official team practice was limited, we relied on each other to find times to hit, so that we wouldn’t be undoing any improvements that we made over the summer. Now that we are back in our regular training schedule, our conditioning isn’t as heavy, although it’s still tough, tennis is more of the main focus.
As a freshman last year, I was content with my singles performance in the fall and the spring, but there is always room for improvement, and more importantly, room for improvement as a team. Being a Mountaineer means being a fighter, and we want to show that to the team’s that we face this year. Our first opportunity to demonstrate our feisty attitude will be at the William & Mary Invitational this weekend in Williamsburg, Virginia, from Sept. 18-20.
I will update the fans every month about our ventures this season, and how we will move forward as a team and bring this program the success it deserves. I am very fortunate to be surrounded by a very supportive group of teammates and coaching staff that is helping us reach our maximum potential. So stay posted, and Let’s Go Mountaineers!
