It’s been a rocky road so far for the Missouri women’s tennis team. The group has had to endure a mid-season coaching change and has been marred by its inability to piece together consecutive wins in conference play.
The struggles continued Sunday afternoon, as the Texas Tech Red Raiders defeated the Tigers handily, by a score of 5-2 at Bethel Park.
“Texas Tech is a really good team,” senior Mallory Weber said. “We didn’t necessarily play bad, they just had a bit more fight and wanted it more than we did today.”
The Tigers were forced to play from behind throughout, as Texas Tech claimed the day’s first point by sweeping the three doubles matches.
The combination of freshman Marlen Hacke and Weber put up a fight in doubles, but eventually fell short against Tech’s combo of freshman Samantha Adams and senior Kelsy Garland.
This marked the first time in four matches that the Tigers did not obtain the doubles point. Interim-coach Steven Stuckenschneider was not pleased at all with his team’s start to the match.
“It was a tough day for everybody,” Stuckenschneider said. “There’s no excuses. The better team won, but we didn’t show up for doubles at all. We gave that point away.”
Despite the white-washing the team experienced during doubles play, the match was by no means over, as the doubles matches only account for one of the seven total points, so each of the six singles matches would be imperative for MU.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, the struggles carried over to singles, as Texas Tech would come away victorious in four of the six matches.
Senior Kaitlyn Ritchie provided one of the few bright spots for Missouri on the afternoon, defeating Texas Tech sophomore Elizabeth Ullathorne in No. 1 singles, 5-7, 6-4, 1-0 (4).
“It was a good, tough, back and forth match,” Ritchie said. “It’s tough staying mentally strong throughout a match like that. I’m just glad to have pulled it out. ”
Junior Jamie Mera also won her singles match for the Tigers, defeating Haley Fournier, 7-6 (5), 3-6, 1-0 (3).
Stuckenschneider was encouraged by the performances during singles of Mera and Ritchie, but the bright spots were not nearly enough to outweigh the negatives in his mind.
“It was a tough day for everybody, leading up to today,” Stuckenschneider said. “We had a tough week of practice. We were inside one day and outside the next. It’s hard having to adjust to that. In singles, I felt we never really got into the match at all.”
The loss dropped the Tigers record to 11-9 overall and 3-5 in conference play and was Missouri’s third consecutive home defeat, dropping its home record to 7-4 after starting the season with four consecutive home victories.
The team will look to right the ship Saturday as it hosts Colorado.