The Bearkat women’s tennis team has a big weekend ahead. The squad will be hosting Abilene Christian University on Friday and the University of North Carolina-Charlotte on Sunday. This will be the first meeting the Kats have had with either teams this season.
Interim head coach Scott Shankles is looking forward to the weekend.
“We are excited about the competition; we will be facing this weekend,” he said.
The team has had a bit of trouble with the weather recently. The rain has been relentless here in Huntsville, leaving the tennis courts drenched and the women very little chance to practice. Shankles is confident, however, that it will not affect the teams play this weekend.
“The recent rain shouldn’t have too much of an impact on our play,” Shankles said. “Once the girls get onto the court, they will be fine.”
Shankles is not worried about the fact that they have never played UNC-Charlotte before. In fact, he said, sometimes it works as an advantage.
“It’s sometimes a good thing when you play a team that you haven’t played before – one you haven’t won to or lost to – so we really don’t have any preconceived ideas of whether or not ‘I should beat this girl’ or ‘ She’s going to beat me’,” Shankles said. “That way, the girls can just get out and compete and play their heart out for the win.”
These two matches will provide some very tough competition for the squad, especially leading into conference play. The girls will begin conference next Tuesday with a match against last year’s SLC champs, the University of Texas – Arlington.
“Although it’s a though part of the schedule, it will be good practice and a good warm-up for our match against UTA,” said Shankles.
The ACU match on Friday will begin at 10 a.m. and the Sunday UTA match will be at 2 p.m. The match will consist of 3 doubles matches and 6 singles matches. All of the singles matches will be played at the same time, as will the doubles.