Spring Break trip wrap-up by Jane Hayden

My only expectation for spring break had been to return to campus bright orange and to show off my impossibly tan skin.  However, as a senior who has been to Hilton Head for the past three years, this year's spring break was one of the best.  Our team was "fired up for no apparent reason" and competed very well against some tough competitors.  We got a lot of our opportunities playing such good teams.  Our doubles teams were the highlight of our week, clinching the match against West Virginia State University.  

But outside of tennis, the team also stuck together and had lots of fun.  Even the elusive men's team invited the girls to do activities with them, a much appreciated gesture that was very different from the last few years.  Sadly however, the men's lacrosse team was unable to go on our annual mini-golf outing, a favorite activity for many girls on the team.  But fortunately, it wasn't enough to dampen everyone's moods.  Many parents visited during the week and spoiled us with extra cooking and shopping.  We also very much benefitted from their cheering as well...

Overall, the trip was full of hard work, team bonding, fun, ice-cream, and sunshine!  I couldn't have asked for a better senior year spring break!

Jane Hayden '09

Aha!  So that's how you make pasta!!! 

Coach with the four seniors

Last night on the island: the team is ready to go out for a nice dinner.  From the left: Kelly, Nattie, Ariel and her shoes, Sarah, Finley, Rebecca, Emily, Jane, and Liv.

Peder Davis (right) displaying some...interesting volley techniques (or is that a dance move?!).  Sam & Ariel look on.

Waiting for Adam (our men's coach) to finish grilling.  In the background, Coach Constantine is fired up about the Greek olive oil he found for his Greek salad...

Dig in!  Our coaches grilled steaks, burgers, and hot dogs for both teams on Wednesday evening

Kelly and Ariel at the beach with dolphins in the background!

From the left: Sarah, Nattie, and Kelly

Senior Jane Hayden studying hard for her upcoming test in fashion design...

Twin sisters Jane (left) and Liv (right) pose during dinner on the last night on the island

Ariel heading for the beach on our day off

They swear they are twins although one is from New York (Rebecca right) and one is from Florida (Emily left) and they look nothing alike!

Mixed-doubles partners Joe and Rebecca pose on the last day

Nattie, Sarah, Jane, Kelly, Liv, Rebecca, and Emily after Monday's match

3 down, 1 to go

Phew!  What a busy last couple of days has been...we played 3 matches within 30 hours since the last post!  It was well worth it though...

DePauw on Monday proved to be indeed a very tough opponent as we expected, but we played well, especially in doubles which was our goal.  Doubles actually proved to be the key yesterday vs D-II West Virginia State as we found ourselves down 4-2 after the singles (we played singles first) but came back to sweep the 3 doubles matches to win the match 5-4!!  It got really exciting there at the end actually as with the match tied at 4-4, it came down to our seniors Liv & Kelly.  It was a back & forth, very well-played match by both pairs but eventually Liv & Kelly closed it out on their 5th match-point (!) 11-9 in the tie-breaker to give us the win for the match!!  It was a great college match atmosphere with lots of people (our men's team, our parents, their fans etc) cheering and yelling for both teams.  The night cap wasn't as exciting (which was fine by us actually!) as we jumped out to a 6-0 lead after the singles (we played singles first again due to the court situation) and coach tried some new combos in doubles later to close the match out with a 7-2 win over Sioux Falls.  

Today we have off so the plan is to get some well-deserved rest: go to the beach, do some outlet shopping, and basically re-charge the batteries for our big match vs Carleton tomorrow.  All-in-all it has been a great trip so far with great weather, good food (Finley's specialty lemon chicken was a big hit) and good team-bonding!  Now if only coach could figure out how to post pictures on here, we would share them with you but...  He's promised that he's working on it though so I'm sure by the end of the season he will have figured it out...  :-) 

We'll report back with any great finds at the outlets later today or tomorrow so be sure to check back in!

 

Match Day!

Sorry for the delay in posting something, but we've been surprisingly busy since arriving on Saturday afternoon!  Our drive down was long, but well worth it.  We are staying in a beautiful condominium and enjoying the good weather and scenery.  Most of us have been laying by the pool or have been to the beach and we've even seen dolphins!  We also had a good 2 hour hit yesterday afternoon to get ready for our match today vs DePauw, a strong regional team.  We then have two matches on Tuesday and one on Thursday.  We have also convinced our men's team, who are staying nearby, to cook our team dinner for us one night!  So all is going really well so far...  

The only problems we've been having is with the security people at the gate of our community (called Sea Pines).  Every time our team tries to re-enter the gated community, we get stopped and told to pull into a parking lot and wait for a Sergeant.  We know they have strict regulations about the types of vehicles that are allowed in Sea Pines and all, but our men's team isn't having any problems going in and out!  There must be something about our coach that looks suspicious; probably the Greek part?!  

We'll be posting some pictures soon so be sure to check back in later today or tomorrow!!

3 days left...

It's only Tuesday and we're still here in Ohio, but the weather has been so nice we can't help but think about our trip to Hilton Head coming up this weekend...Yesterday was our first day of practice outside and today is also super nice: sunny and well into the 60's so everyone has been definitely hit by spring fever!!  

First things first however:  We still have midterms to take and Tiffin to beat (on Thursday) before heading south.  So check back in with us in a few days!