WILLIAMSBURG, KY – The Carson-Newman women's tennis team saw success across the board in both singles and doubles play at the University of the Cumberlands Tournament in Williamsburg, Kentucky.
Freshman Anna Carla Resende (Minas Gerais, Brazil) won her first singles match, then won both doubles matches and then was forced to retire from her second singles match due to a minor injury.
Resende was teamed up with junior Hannah Price (Knoxville, TN) for her first doubles contest.
"Two players that don't make a whole lot of mistakes," Carson-Newman coach Jim Frederick said. "That's their advantage. Not a whole lot of offense but they don't make a whole lot of mistakes."
That dynamic changed in Resende's second doubles match when she was paired with senior Klara Vuckovic (Germany), a more offensive-minded player.
"I still like the fact that we have an offensive player working with a steady player," Frederick said. "That's always worked for me in the past and I think it'll work again."
Both Resende and Vuckovic are left-handed which presented a unique challenge to C-N's three opponents at the tournament, the University of the Cumberlands, Tennessee Wesleyan, and Union College.
"That's an advantage for sure because it's like a left-handed baseball pitcher," Frederick said. "Most people are right-handed so in this case when you're receiving you don't see the ball curve the way you would when a right-hander serves. A lefty's curveball curves right and a right's curveball curves left."
Not only did Price win both of her doubles matches but she won both singles contests as well.
"She stuck with one game plan," Frederick said. "If your game plan is losing you've got to change it but you can't change it every two or three points. I think that was a good lesson for her this weekend. She learned she's got to stick with the game plan particularly when it is working."
Vuckovic only played in doubles matches. She saw a victory alongside Resende but lost next to senior Alisa Liashova (Ukraine).
"When Klara plays with Alisa she has to play the steady role," Frederick said. "When she plays with Anna Carla she was the more aggressive of the two. She is probably the player we have now that can play both. Alisa and Abby [Reis] are offensive players that need to be more steady and Anna Carla and Hannah are steady players that need to be more offensive."
Liashova won all three of her singles matches while Reis won one singles match and lost the other two in third-set tiebreakers.
The team next plays on Oct. 11th through the 13th at the Georgia Gwinnett Invitational in Lawrenceville, Georgia.
"I thought this weekend, for the most part, we competed pretty well and I think that that's a huge thing," Frederick said. "If we can get consistent in that we're gonna get better results."
Be sure to keep up with the Carson-Newman tennis team all across C-N's social media platforms and on cneagles.com.