The women’s tennis team is back and ready to compete in this upcoming season. After graduating five seniors in the past season, the team is young and full of life.

“We are young and they have a lot of energy,” Head Coach Barry Gorman said. “They are eager to take on all the different roles.”

Coach Gorman said that the returning players came back ready to go. They have been working on getting their challenge matches done to decide who will be the new doubles pairs for the upcoming season. The team is doing really well and both Gorman and teammates noted they already have a very strong bond.

“Preseason was really good,” junior captain Riley Spillane said. “We did team bonding a lot more than we have done in the past, we have gotten a lot closer. There are no seniors on our team this season so we are all very close in age which is good. I think we are going to be a close team, which is nice.”

Spillane will be starting in the third spot in the lineup. She is looking forward to the season playing in her spot in singles, but also would like to try to play in the doubles matches.

During the first couple weeks in preseason, the team was mainly focusing on their singles play. Once they finish that, they will begin working to find out who their doubles pairs will be for the season.

The team’s main focus during preseason was getting used to having a whole new team.

“Everyone is different, it is a whole new dynamic with all new people so we are just trying to get used to that.” Spillane said. 

Sophomore Heidi Martin felt preseason went extremely well for the team.

“We had a really good preseason, the freshmen stepped up, really everybody stepped up,” Martin said.

Martin is a returning player for the Hawks, who was ninth in the lineup this past year, and has now been moved to the first spot.

“I am excited to step up to the plate,” Martin said,.“We lost our one, two, three, four, five, and six spots from last season. It is just exciting to be taking on this new challenge.”

Freshman Libby Bennett is also excited about preseason. She admitted that coming into preseason was nerve-wracking, and she did not know what to expect. After the first day of preseason, her mind completely changed.

 “The team and coach were all so welcoming and the ‘team bonding’ made the transition so much easier,” Bennett said.

Spillane, Bennett, Martin and Coach Gorman all believe that the strongest asset they bring into this season is how close the team has really become, especially over such a short time frame.