Women (7-2)

The women’s tennis team took the court on Feb. 14 against Greensboro College and prevailed with a 7-2 victory.

“We have a lot of new energy, people want to try new things,” senior Megan Fair said. “We (wanted) to start out on a good note.”

And they did.

Junior Nina Bollag and first-year Mackey Wesner set the pace for the women, and defeated Pride’s Katie Allegro and Michelle Lemmons 8-5 in first doubles by playing a consistent ground game.

“For me, I got nervous in the beginning (of the match) and I just needed to work on that,” Bollag said. “I think a lot of teams have pretty strong ones and twos, we just need to work on consistency (to continue beating them).”

Following first doubles’ success, the second and third doubles served and volleyed their way to victory. Junior Liz Killion’s net game and sophomore Mary Simpson’s ground play beat Meredith Kelly and Elizabeth Mauze 8-1, while first-year Addy Ayers and Fair persevered with an 8-1 victory as well.

Fair used speed and aggressive play to gain a 6-0, 6-0 win against Elizabeth Morton, while Ayers beat Mauze 6-4, 6-1 in singles.

Bollag and Killion served their ways to wins at third and fourth singles 6-1, 6-0 and 6-0, 6-0, but after aggressive play and impressive volleys Wesner lost in a tiebreaker, 6-1, 4-6, (5-10) and Simpson was defeated 6-2, 6-3.

Wesner was one of two first-years in the starting lineup against the Pride, and has been placed in the first doubles and singles position.

“With Mackey and the other three freshman that walked on, I think we have the potential to be great, and not to be overly confident, but I feel like if everyone continues to work hard we could potentially be second or third in conference,” Bollag said.

Following this match, the women will face Hollins University Feb. 21.

“I think we’re all confident in how we play and if we keep our heads up we’ll do well the rest of the season,” Wesner said.

Men (9-0)

In the brisk winter weather on Feb. 14, the Guilford men’s tennis team matched up against Greensboro College in their first competition of the season, and revenged their 5-4 loss to the Pride last year, winning 9-0.

The Quakers came out strong in doubles, winning all three matches, and continued the winning trend throughout singles play.

“Everybody is really consistent,” Greensboro player David Brown said. “Everyone looks really well coached … Guilford has definitely improved from last year.”

The number one doubles team, seniors Alec Chase and Will Mason-Deese, demonstrated their match-play experience with strong serving and aggressive volleying to pull off an 8-3 win against Pride’s Clayton Hamilton and Zach Bruff.

“Will and I have been playing together now for about a year and a half and we work really well together,” Chase said. “We are able to work as one.”

Mason-Deese and Chase both went on to win their singles matches, with Mason-Deese volleying his way to a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Hamilton in first singles, and Chase remained strong in second singles in the advantage plays against sophomore Clayton Shelton 6-2,6-0.

From seniors to first-years, the second and third doubles teams experienced similar wins.

First-years Jody Cox and Ben Nelson overcame Brown and Kevin Koval 8-0, and Andre Arguimbau and Mark Cheong beat Shelton and Mike Benfield 8-1 in doubles with their approach shots and net game.

“Our volley game was good, we just (played) more aggressively and dominated in serving,” Cheong said.

Cheong went on to win singles 6-3, 6-3 and Arguimbau finished his match 6-1, 6-1.

At six singles, senior Patrick Childs used his accuracy to outplay and outsmart Pride player Koval in a 6-2, 6-0 victory. Cox beat Brown 6-0, 6-0, using his speed to keep the ball in play at fifth singles.

The win on Sunday has the players and head coach Eddie Luck hopeful for the rest of the season.

“(We played) smart tennis . both (men and women) are stronger this year,” Luck said. “The players have been very good about getting out there on their own.”

The Quakers don’t play again until Feb. 28, at Washington & Lee.

“The upperclassmen are all seniors except one sophomore, so since most of the upperclassmen have a lot of experience, we can pass that on to the freshman so they can carry that on (after this season),” Chase said. “Leadership from the seniors is a big thing.