The Cincinnati Bearcats women’s tennis team lost a close, hard-fought battle to the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders Friday on Senior Day at the Trabert-Talbert Tennis Center.
The 4-3 loss drops Cincinnati to 10-8 overall in the Spring portion of the overall season.
Cincinnati got off to a great start by sweeping the three doubles matches for a 1-0 lead in the match, but then dropped four out of the six singles matches.
“We were more energetic in doubles and it totally reflected that, but just got off to a slow start in singles,” Bearcat head coach Eric Toth said. “When you have two teams it comes down to a couple of points and they won more of them today, but I’m proud of the way we fought.”
I was new to covering the sport of tennis Friday.
Here are some takeaways from it.
One thing I have always found entertaining, even as others may not, is hearing tennis players grunt while watching them on television.
I mean this in a good way, but I didn’t think it was that way at the college level until Friday.
In my opinion, tennis is an extremely difficult sport to play. One must be physically strong to play a full match, sometimes multiple times a week.
I think the sport can take a toll on the shoulder or any other part of the arm. Players are thrusting their shoulders to serve a ball at warp speed, and they also put some charge into the rallies to make it harder on the opposition.
Aside from all of that, you can’t sit in one place when covering a college tennis match. At one point, there are six matches going on at the same time.
The Bearcats are a fun team to watch. Toth has a calming presence about him that is rubbed off onto assistant coach Katarina Adamovic, and she tries to rub that calming presence onto the players.
On courts 5 and 6, Bearcats Anna Philp (Jr.) and Emma Miceli (So.) both faced adversity in their singles matches, eventually falling to their respective Middle Tennessee opponents.
But throughout those matches, Toth just unleashed his calming presence in keeping both players encouraged.
On the emotional side, though, there was the Bearcats lone senior, Antonella Bramato.
In her final home match, she left it all out on the court, letting out emotional bellows every time she netted a point in her three-set win over Costanza Magazzini.
Next-game mentality
The Bearcats will have a quick turnaround ahead of Sunday’s match at crosstown rival Xavier.
“We just got to move on and get ready for Sunday,” Toth said. “It’s a rivalry match. They’re very good this year. Beating them can really help us moving forward.”
The match will get underway at 3 p.m. from the Jim and Mary Brockhoff Family Tennis Facility.