The women’s tennis team has had a startling comeback with two matches won this season, which is the same as the past two years combined. Kim Kleimeier, a Guilford alumni, coaches the team to victory with hopes for more wins as the season continues.

Previously the women’s team didn’t have a head coach, as Kleimeier only assisted the men’s coach in additon to helping out the women’s team. Gaining a head coach has been an improvement for the team as a whole. Three returning players are joined by several new recruits, many whom have never played the sport before.  

“It’s a lot of different players with different backgrounds, some who’ve been on the team before, some that have played tennis before but not on the team and some that are brand new to the sport,” Kleimeier said. “Everybody kind of comes in with a different perspective and it’s been a lot of fun just actually having them form relationships with each other and just becoming a team.”

Building on the skills of each and every one of the team members is one of the main goals they’re focusing on.

“You can’t expect someone who doesn’t have any type of background to go out and win every match, that’s not realistic,” said Kleimeier. “But, when they do find things that they’re building on, that’s really rewarding because that builds their self-confidence, too and I think that when you’re able to build confidence in one area of your life, whether that’s tennis or academics, you can translate that into other things that you do and I think that makes you a stronger person. But, of course it’s challenging. It’s a lot of time and work.”

Kleimeier has not been coaching the team alone. She has the help of assistant Graham Pearson.

“He’s been great and it’s good just to have a second person on the court that can just help with getting everybody ready as quickly as possible,” Kleimeier said.

Senior Olivia La Ganza tells her experience with having so many new players on the team this season.

“I think that a lot of having new players succeed comes down to coaching. Our new players have really grown and are committed to continuing to grow, and props go to Kim and Graham, who have worked so hard with our new players to get them comfortable with the game while also continuing to up the game of those who already have experience,” La Ganza said. “It can be a struggle when you’re rebuilding a team but the whole team is fully committed to being the best we can and everyone has shown tremendous growth.”

Junior Megan Kimpel has seen the improvement of the team so far as well.

“It’s going really well,” Kimpel said. “It’s good to have some new energy on the courts and people who can bring other parts to the sport and create a new side with the team. Overall I think that this season is going really well. We are already seeing improvements with two wins under our belts, and I can’t wait to see what more we can do and how the new and old players will get better. Overall it’s just going to be a great season!”

La Ganza and Makayla McLaurin are the only two seniors on the roster, but believe the team’s future is bright.

“Even though I won’t be here next year, I leave knowing the program is in good hands and heading towards great things,” La Ganza said.Kleimeier believes the team is looking upwards this year and for the future.

“It’s exciting. I’m especially excited for the players themselves, especially the ones that are returners not just from last year, but the year before,” Kleimeier said. “It’s exciting to see a team come together and put something together like this where we’ve actually had more wins than we’ve had in the past two years.”

The team is focused on building for the future but still want to win more matches this season.

“It’s a good building block, this is such a great start and now we can kind of reset the goals for next year and make the goals a little steeper for next time, because you always want something to reach for,” Kleimeier said. “I think the goal we’re really working on achieving through the end of this season is winning a conference match. We still have quite a few conference matches to go, and that’s what we’re really working hard to get done.

“If we can do that I’m going to be extremely excited by the end of the year.”

The team’s next match is Saturday, when they travel to Randolph College for a 1 p.m. match and look to win their first conference match since April 9, 2016.