The No. 9 Alabama women’s tennis team is having one if its best regular seasons in school history. After sweeping last weekend against No. 10 Texas A&M and Missouri, Alabama has a 18-3 record (10-1 SEC). The Crimson Tide will be playing its final weekend of the regular season against No. 8 Georgia and Tennessee.
“We’ll be ready,” coach Jenny Mainz said. “I think the team’s excited. I mean, we are in contention for first and we’ve worked hard to get there.”
(See also “Tide women’s tennis team defeat Aggies“)
Alabama is not thinking about what it’s accomplished, though. The team is focused at the task at hand. At Tuesday’s practice, large speakers were blaring UGA fight songs and crowd noises, and the players had to play and communicate with each other while these speakers were on max volume.
“We are in prep mode, just trying to get ready for the energy and the crowd at Georgia,” Mainz said. “They are intense. They are engaging. It’s a vibrant crowd.”
Mainz said Georgia is arguably the toughest road opponent in the SEC because of the crowd and band that will be at the courts.
“It kind of gets you in the mindset, and getting used to communicating with your partner in doubles, and just being used to it,” senior Mary Anne Daines said. “When it’s outdoors, you don’t expect it to be that loud, but they do a really good job of that.”
(See also “Tide women’s tennis team hosts final home matches“)
Not only is the match a top-10 matchup, but Alabama and UGA are tied with Vanderbilt atop the SEC standings with a 10-1 record. The winner of the match between UGA and Alabama will be in consideration for the top seed in the SEC tournament. Vanderbilt holds a tiebreaker over both schools and will claim the top seed if it wins its last two matches. Vanderbilt will have get through No. 11 Florida and South Carolina first.
“It will be interesting to see how everything shakes out Sunday,” Mainz said.
Alabama will also be playing Tennessee on Sunday, which hasn’t been as successful as the Tide; it has an 11-10 record (5-6 SEC). If the Crimson Tide wins, it will have a chance at the No. 1 seed.
“We just got out of meeting, and Jenny said its about how were going to finish. We’ve had a lot of success this season, so a lot of emphasis is on this weekend,” sophomore Maya Jansen said. “I think we’ve prepared ourselves well to be successful this weekend.”
(See also “Men’s tennis to face USC in 1st match since 1989“)
