Tennis finishes fall with wins

The Truman State women’s tennis team wrapped up its fall season last Saturday with a four-team tournament at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, also featuring Maryville University and Lindenwood University.

Although no Truman players won their brackets during either singles or doubles, several of the Bulldogs were able to succeed during their final competition. During doubles, both Truman teams in the A-flight bracket were able to pick up first-round victories. Sophomore Lindsay Schlichting and junior Marisa Thome defeated an UMSL doubles team by a score of eight sets to four before falling to a first-seeded Maryville duo during the second round.

“We played really well against UMSL’s team and won, so that was really nice,” Thome says. “I think next season in the spring, we’ll play together really well. Lindsay and I, we’ve gotten to where we miss a lot less of our shots. We’ve gotten really aggressive at the net.”

Thome lost her singles match to Maryville’s No. 1 player, junior Puck Vlaskamp. Thome says though she made some mistakes, she thinks there was little she could have done differently to win the match.

“Honestly, she was just a really good player,” Thome says. “I played her last year, and I made improvements, but she was [GLVC freshman of the year] last year, so she’s really good. I don’t think there’s much I could have done better.”

Thome says the team is starting to really mesh, and she has seen some improvement going into the spring season. She says the doubles teams are good and are equipped with more depth now than they had a semester ago.

Three players were able to win at least one round during singles play last weekend. Schlichting, senior Savannah Everett and freshman Maura Dunn made it out of the first round as winners in their brackets. Schlichting competed in the A-flight bracket, while Everett and Dunn were in the B-flight bracket.

“I was a lot more patient than I’ve been recently,” Everett says. “I’ve been really consistent, and I think a lot of our girls have gotten better about that.”

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