The Baker University women’s tennis team ended its season Saturday after losing 5-3 to McKendree College in the Region V semifinals.
“The rain kind of put a damper on things,” junior Kelsey Stephens said. “We had to wait around all day for the rain, so it was hard to get motivated. We didn’t get a long warm up so it was a struggle to get into it. We were tired and just couldn’t ever catch up.”
The women won two out of three doubles matches, but lost during singles after only winning one match.??
Even though the team did not make it to nationals, sophomore Courtney Struble said the season went well.
“We had really good team dynamic, and even though we didn’t make it as far as we would have liked to, we all felt really good about this season,” Struble said.
Senior Danielle Cartier said she felt their biggest accomplishment this season was beating William Jewell College in regular season to make it to the regional tournament.
“We are going to keep practicing on things we’ve been working on all throughout this season because we really improved over the year,” Cartier said.
Head coach Regan Dodd said the team had never beat William Jewell during her four years of coaching at Baker.
The men ended their season April 21 after a loss to Benedictine College in the semifinals of the Heart of America Athletic Conference tournament.
Although the men’s team ended its season early, Dodd said she is looking forward to what they can do next year.
“The way the regional was set up didn’t allow the true top four teams in the region to go on to the regional playoffs,” Dodd said. ” I think (the men’s team) will continue to move up the ranks next year and maybe even contend at large for the nationals.”
Dodd said next year’s teams will be the same except for the loss of exchange student Peter Mazel on the men’s side. On the women’s side, Cartier will only play the fall season due to eligibility status and Struble will be sitting out the fall season for a chronic shoulder injury. Her status for the 2007 spring season is still unknown.
The women ended their season with an overall record of 14-3, placed second in the conference and third in the region, while the men ended with a record of 11-5 and placed third in conference and third in regionals.