Not everyone was excited about the rule change, but like it or not, the rule will come back into play when Alabama hosts No. 6 Florida on Friday at 5 p.m.
“It’s definitely not my preference,” senior Natalia Maynetto said. “You learn to find the positives in it, but I’m definitely more of a deuce point fan.”
The change was not sudden. It had been discussed for years and was nearly implemented for the 2014-15 season. It doesn’t appear to go away anytime soon either.
“I think it’ll be the rule for a while,” assistant coach Shelley Godwin said. “They’ve been talking about it for a few years, so I think the team is just going to have to adjust to it.”
David Benjamin, the chairman of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Board of Directors, said the change, implemented in both men’s and women’s tennis, was made to “keep college tennis even more relevant and more exciting, in an ever-changing, time-challenged world.”
By making the shift and eliminating deuce points, the length of matches can be shortened, something the NCAA has wanted to happen for years.
The no-ad scoring creates more pressure on the players. Handling that pressure sometimes requires a different mental approach to the game entirely.
“I have to have more of an aggressive mindset knowing that losing the point means losing the game,” Maynetto said. “I have to take more chances, just because with deuce points you can kinda wait to see what’s going to happen. With no-ad, it makes the games seem a lot more intense and shorter.”
The Crimson Tide has faced no-ad scoring all-season long and holds a 4-13 record overall and a 0-9 record for SEC competition.
“The no-ad scoring is a different animal [than a deuce point],” coach Jenny Mainz said. “You have to be ready to seize your opportunities with a 40-40 point, because if you don’t take them then you lose the game and usually the momentum.”
An NCAA poll conducted in February 2015 revealed that 88.2 percent of female student-athletes preferred the deuce point to the no-ad scoring. However, the same poll revealed that an undisclosed majority (over 50 percent) of women’s coaches preferred no-ad scoring.
“I think that it affects each player differently,” Godwin said. “It’s changed the game a little bit in that you need to be more aggressive. The people who are aggressive tend to win those big games and big points. We’re trying to embrace it.”
