The No. 9 University of Alabama women’s tennis team will travel to Charlottesville, Va., Friday for the 2013 Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Team Indoor Championships.

The Crimson Tide will look to keep the momentum, as it finished strong Sunday in a 6-1 victory over Southern Methodist University at the Northwood Country Club.

“I thought we had a good weekend, and it was a good team effort, but we are still fine-tuning things; it is still early,” head coach Jenny Mainz said. “The chance that we qualified for national indoors is only going to help us get better, and it is a privilege to be a part of the elite six that will be competing there.”

Mainz said their last matches were the next step to prepare them for future matches, as they lost their first doubles point of the season against Texas Christian University Saturday. Mainz also said it was actually a good thing they lost, because they were battle-tested on the road, and it put them in a position to show how they would respond.

Tide sophomores Yasmeen Ebada and Emily Zabor won their first doubles match of the season over sophomore Holly Verner and freshman Hristina Dishkova of SMU.

“We have been really working hard on just taking each match at a time and not worrying about the future, trying to focus on what we could do better each day,” Zabor said.

(See also “Wins during 1st weekend supply motivation for women’s tennis team”)

Zabor said she has seen significant growth and improvement as a team within the last couple of weeks, and senior Alexa Guarachi’s role has impacted her and the squad this year.

“She is a very great leader on the court and works extremely hard in practice and in matches,” Zabor said. “She is very knowledgeable about the game and helps out whenever we need it, and she always believes in our team.”

Guarachi and junior Mary Anne Macfarlane are the one-two punch in doubles this season.

“I feel like they are the best two players in the country, and I have a lot of faith in them,” Mainz said. “They are good players, leaders [and] competitors, and they have led this team on and off the court.”

The Alabama women will prepare to take the court this weekend against 15 other teams. The Tide will be the No. 7 seed in the 2013 ITA National Team Indoor Championships. They will play Northwestern in the first round on Friday at 8 a.m. CT.

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