One week after sweeping both the doubles and singles divisions of the ITA Southern Regional tournament, the Tide women’s tennis team traveled to New York to compete in the National Indoor Championships.
Tide players found success at Flushing Greens, home of the U.S. Open.
In singles, freshman Mary Anne Macfarlane lost in the first round of the tournament to Denise Muresan from the University of Michigan, but made it to the finals in the consolation bracket.
Doubles partners Courtney McLane and Alexa Guarachi advanced to the semi-finals before dropping to a pair from the University of Florida.
The team even made a brief television appearance when they were selected to appear on the CBS Early Show on Wednesday.
“We went into the CBS Store and the guy asked us if we wanted to be on the show,” Macfarlane said. “They asked us a trivia question and we got it right.”
Head coach Jenny Mainz said she is thrilled with the weekend’s performance on the court.
“We had a fantastic showing,” Mainz said. “I am very encouraged by the way we played this weekend.”
Mainz said the success the team has had this season makes it stand out to those in the past.
“I feel like this is one of the best fall seasons we have had at Alabama,” Mainz said. “To go out and play with the college elite and prove that we can compete is encouraging for the spring season.”
Macfarlane won the singles division of the ITA Southern Regional Tournament this year as a freshman and said she owes the improvements she has made this fall in part to her coaches and teammates.
“I definitely feel like I have improved,” Macfarlane said. “It is only because I have such great teammates and a great coach. I really feel like I have improved because of that.”
Macfarlane said she believes practice allowed the team to excel in the tournament.
“Hard work and doing whatever it takes to do our best,” Macfarlane said. “That is what it is all about; doing our best and trying to get better each day with practice.”
Guarachi agrees that practice led to the team’s success and said she feels that practice over the upcoming offseason will determine their success this spring.
“We all have to take care of ourselves before our break,” Guarachi said. “Everyone needs to put in their part during the offseason and not get injured before the main season.”
Injuries plagued the Tide lineup last fall, and Mainz said avoiding injury is imperative to the team’s ability to succeed this spring.
“Last year we had a really solid team,” Mainz said. “However, we were plagued with injuries that kept us from reaching some of the goals we had last year.”
Mainz said hard work remains on the schedule for her team over the next two months of the offseason.
“We have a lot of hard work ahead of us,” she said. “It is going to require a lot of diligence, a lot of hard work. We have proven that we are a great team. It is a process to be respected; it is a process to be enjoyed, a process to be embraced. A big part of it is the improvement for us.”
