After coming off a losing season, the Alabama women’s tennis team finished Auburn’s SEC Coaches’ Classic this past weekend with seventeen wins. Generating some of those wins were doubles partners junior Courtney McLane and sophomore Alexa Guarachi.
The pair ranks a University of Alabama history high at No. 2 in the NCAA Intercollegiate Tennis Association Preseason Rankings. The pair won all of their matches as a duo this past weekend and dropped only one match apiece individually.
“Their wins are convincing,” head coach Jenny Mainz said. “They won 8-1 in the finals [this weekend]. They took command early. They are a very dynamic team and complement each other well.
“The ranking is great. It’s not where we start though, it’s where we finish. I certainly have all the confidence in the world that they could take it all and be number one.
“[However,] with every success, every high ranking, or every achievement comes more challenges, more demands, and more expectations. They have to continue to compete with that firepower and that intensity [throughout the year].”
The No. 2 ranked duo toughed it out against the Tennessee Volunteers in their first doubles match of the tournament, winning 8-3.
“The Tennessee team was the toughest team this weekend,” Guarachi said. “It was a team that we haven’t seen before. We weren’t sure how they played. It was our closest match.”
McLane elaborated on the match against the Vols.
“On paper, Ole Miss was a tougher contest,” she said. “We ended up playing them in the finals. We had a harder time with Tennessee first round. It was the first match of the season. We had to just get into our [rhythm]. [However], once we got going, it was a pretty good time from there.”
Collectively, the team earned seventeen wins at the tournament but dropped a total of thirteen matches.
“No [other conference] in the country has a tournament this early in the season,” Mainz said. “Even if we didn’t win all the matches, it still helps us.”
Redshirt junior Tiffany Welcher debuted at last weekend’s tournament after a year off. Welcher won a doubles match with teammate and senior Meritt Emery.
Freshman Alex Clay and junior Taylor Lindsey won one of their doubles matches and took two wins each in singles. Sophomore Antonia Foehse and freshman Mary Anne Macfarlane won almost all of their doubles matches, dropping only one. Individually, Foehse won one singles match.
“Auburn is always a good time because it’s our most [recognized] rival,” McLane said. “Personally, I am looking forward to the Georgia match the most. We all have arch rivals on that team that we always like to play and beat.”
Next, the Tide plays in North Carolina for the Duke Tennis Fall Invitational from Sept. 17-19.
