Mental toughness is key for women’s tennis opener
It has been nearly three months off for the Utah State women’s tennis team, but it will finally take the court in its first tournament of the spring season Thursday when Montana State University comes to Logan.
Although the Aggies have only been practicing for just over two weeks this semester, they have had time to prepare.
“It seems late [in the semester], but by then we’ll be raring and ready to go,” said team co-captain Caroline Pollock.
In the fall, the Aggies played in two individual tournaments, but Thursday will be their first match as a team and the first team match for the new USU freshmen.
“It’s more like you’re playing for the school now,” said freshman Jill Smith. “It’s a lot more fun because you have the support from your teammates.”
Smith is one of three freshmen on a young team completed by only one senior, two juniors and two sophomores.
“I think this could be our most talented team we’ve had,” said assistant coach Steve Peterson. “They’re young, but in terms of their future, this team is going to be awesome. They don’t have much experience, but they have all the talent in the world.”
The youth doesn’t necessarily indicate a total lack of experience, though. Pollock and junior co-captain Shelly Ferguson played in most of the Utah State matches last spring, as did sophomores Carolyn Larsen and Haley Hawkins.
For those returning players, Montana State will be a familiar opponent. The Aggies played the Bobcats on the road last season, earning a 5-2 victory.
“It’s a good team to play first, we know them,” Pollock said.
Not only is it Utah State’s first match, but the Bobcats’ as well. With players not having a chance for competition this season, Aggie Head Coach Chris Wright said he expects there to be some nerves in the match.
“Everybody is going to have jitters, both teams,” he said. “Last season we went up to their place and we won but there were a lot of hard fought matches. It wasn’t an easy win.”
Larsen said she was feeling some “nervousness and butterflies,” but Smith said she hadn’t felt nervous — yet.
“Probably coming Thursday I will have some nerves, definitely,” she said.
To combat the nerves, Wright said in practice the team has been focusing on its mental game. The hitting skills are in place, but the players need to know when to hit particular shots, speed the match up or slow it down, he said.
“Those are the things that are unknowns right now without playing the matches,” Wright said. “As far as hitting the ball and the team’s mood and attitude, those are all great. I feel like we’re going to go in with all those and those are all pluses.”
Wright even had a sports psychologist at a practice to help the players with their mental game.
“Mental toughness is more than half the battle,” Larsen said. “You have to have the shots, but I think since we’re all in college playing tennis, we do have the shots. It’s now just putting it out there at the right time. Playing the shot at the right time.”
The way the team matches are set up, the players are left on their own to make their own decisions most of the time. Three doubles matches are played simultaneously, and then following the completion of doubles, the singles matches are held.
With all the matches going on at the same time, Wright said it doesn’t give the coaches an opportunity to be with all the players all the time. Instead, he said they just have to trust the players to make the right decision.
“It’s not like if they do something dumb we can pull them out,” Wright said. “They have to think things through and make those little adjustments midcourse of the match and change up things that maybe aren’t working.”
Despite the nerves, the mental preparation and the last minute touch-ups on their game, the players said they are excited to finally get the chance to be in action.
“I’m excited to start playing since we’ve been practicing for so long,” Smith said. “To finally get to go out and see what we’ve accomplished as a team practicing is good.”
Larsen said, “All of fall practice you want to get competition. It’s really going to be nice and get out there and make this not the just practice-work part. It’s now the play part, the fun part.”
The match will be held at the Sports Academy and Racquet Club in North Logan, the site of all the Aggie home tennis matches. The match is set to start at noon with a men’s team match to follow at 4 p.m.
–slbk5@cc.usu.edu