BY MATT EBBERWEIN
Staff Writer
The Lady Barons continued to dominate the tennis courts on Sunday as they swept Mt. Aloycious College in a 9-0 victory.
Head Coach Jenna Lynch was pleased with the girls’ victory and felt they did a good job with taking what they had learned at practice into Sunday’s match.
“I told them it wasn’t a lot about pace,” said Lynch. “It’s about strategy and being smart and using some of the slower ball shots like the lob and drop shot to win the points and playing with a high athletic IQ.”
Sunday’s win marked the Barons’ fourth shutout of the season as well as their sixth conference win. While the team is excited about their success, Lynch doesn’t want them to get ahead of themselves.
Lynch commented, “We’ve really been trying not to look ahead. Even though we’re sweeping some of the teams, it doesn’t mean anything. On any given day a team like this could beat us just based on mental status. So I caution them [not] to look ahead … I want them to be in the moment of each match.”
As the coach, Lynch believes it is her job to look ahead in the season, not the girls’. In reference to Franciscan’s rematch against Westminster scheduled at the end of the season Lynch said, “I always use the Westminster matches to see how much we progress … but I don’t talk about it with them and we don’t practice for that match.”
Aside from the team’s performance as a whole, the Barons’ had many outstanding individual performances.
One of these came especially from freshman Emily Mathias who began the season on the bench but had to step up when her teammate, Anna O’Connor, injured her shoulder while playing against Penn St.-Behrend.
“She played really well today. It’s often harder to play a player like she played who doesn’t have a lot of experience because you cannot anticipate where that ball is going. She’s probably MVP of the day, actually,” said Lynch.
After Sunday’s win, the Lady Barons Tennis Team moved to an overall record of 7-1. They play again on Tuesday at home against Bethany College.