{"id":20136,"date":"2025-02-07T07:21:09","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T13:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/?p=20136"},"modified":"2025-02-07T07:21:09","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T13:21:09","slug":"womens-tennis-team-starts-season-strong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/2025\/02\/07\/womens-tennis-team-starts-season-strong\/","title":{"rendered":"Womens’ Tennis Team starts season Strong"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Written by Eli Dean\/Photo by Edgar Cardiel<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harding women\u2019s tennis started their season off strong, splitting two matches against DI opponents. After falling to McNeese State University during their first meet of the season 6-1 on Jan. 31, the Lady Bisons picked up their first win against a DI opponent in 8 years, defeating Missouri State University 4-3 on Feb. 2. After the loss on Friday, head coach David Redding said that he had a high level of confidence in the team moving forward, and liked his team\u2019s effort given the limited amount of practices they\u2019ve had so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had to miss some practices because of the snow and the ice and the cold weather,\u201d Redding said. \u201cBut I\u2019m confident that we\u2019ll be able to overcome the early season mistakes from the lack of practice.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The weekend\u2019s weather was perfect for practice, and the difference between Friday and Sunday was very much apparent. After sophomore Alexia Zarate Valdez scored the deciding point in a singles match that lasted just under two hours, the rest of the team surrounded Valdez and celebrated. For a smaller team than in years past, any individual win is a team win, and the chemistry is only getting stronger early on in the season. Senior Madison Stafford said that the team is bonding well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re definitely closer than last year, but we could get closer,\u201d Stafford said. \u201cWe just started, but we have a really good team this year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tennis can at times be a very individual sport, which makes it equally challenging mentally as it is physically. Sophomore Itza Rogel, who plays both singles and doubles for the Lady Bisons, said that there are plenty of differences between the two formats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith doubles, you can rely on your partner, but in singles, you rely just on your head,\u201d Rogel said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re doing bad in doubles, you have your partner to say \u2018it\u2019s fine.\u2019 But when you\u2019re playing singles, it\u2019s yourself in your head, which is a little bit harder but if you\u2019re strong mentally, you can do it as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s only the beginning, but the invigorated Lady Bisons team is looking like a team that can compete and isn\u2019t afraid of any team that might come their way. Stafford said that as a senior, she\u2019s looking to make the most of her last season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just want to enjoy my last season,\u201d Stafford said. \u201cI\u2019m going to stay as positive as I can and smile a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Eli Dean\/Photo by Edgar Cardiel Harding women\u2019s tennis started their season off strong, splitting two matches against DI opponents. After falling to McNeese State University during their first…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15086,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15086"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20136\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}