Story by Adam Redfern, Staff writer
With its fiery 7-0 start in OVC play, Murray State women’s tennis is poised to tie the best conference start in program history since the Racers compiled an unblemished 8-0 record in 2003.
And while the tennis team is in the midst of taking the OVC by storm this year, it’s possible this result came by surprise after the Racers finished 7-12 (4-5) last year.
Not only are they perfect in the conference, but they are riding a nine-game winning streak which has them sitting at 13-6 and perched atop the OVC.
A turnaround of that magnitude takes more than just a talented group. Four-year Head Coach Jorge Caetano attributes this newfound success to the sheer mental fortitude of this year’s team.
“It’s so mental; college sports in general is more mental,” Caetano said. “The most important thing is even when we aren’t playing good we are still finding a way to win matches. Even though we got a lot of wins, some of those wins were those tight matches that we didn’t really play that well.”
Caetano said he’s impressed by his team’s play early on, but with a portion of the regular season remaining and a grueling OVC tournament ahead, he wants the team to take the remainder of the season one game at a time.
“We are just trying to win one match at a time, one practice at a time, and just try to enjoy every single moment out there,” Coach Caetano said. “They do a really, really good job of that. Got to give props to every single one of them.”
Caetano said his team is playing confidently on the court. That has showed in the Racers’ last two matches, winning both by way of a 7-0 sweep.
“We’ve got a lot of things going for us now,” Caetano said. “We’ve lost a lot of close matches. We were doubting ourselves in those moments, but now we kinda stopped worrying too much about it. We are just playing tennis. We always work really hard to get prepared and play our best tennis.”
The unprecedented start is a testament to Caetano’s mental approach to the game, as his philosophy has rubbed off on his players. Junior Amina Hadzic, from Esbjerg, Denmark, said her improvements mentally over the past two years have proved instrumental in her play this season.
“When I’m playing the match, it’s all mental,” Hadzic said. “I’m more mature now than my freshman and sophomore year, and I know that even if I have a bad practice it doesn’t bother me anymore.”
Her emphasis on the mental aspect of the sport has clearly proven fruitful. With her win Saturday, Hadzic has now won 14-straight singles matches and serves as an anchor for the team at the No. 4 spot. As one of two juniors on what is a young Racer team, Hadzic has evolved into one of Murray State’s most vocal leaders.
But with meetings against the conference’s finest coming up, the Racers will need to string together a balanced effort from top to bottom. They meet 12-8 Eastern Kentucky (7-0 OVC) on Tuesday, April 10, in a match between two of the conference’s unbeatens. The match will likely decide the No. 1 seed in the OVC tournament.
The last time Murray State tennis won eight straight games, the team went on to win the OVC tournament. With this year’s imposing start, the team will surely be hoping history repeats itself.
