The young women’s tennis team will start this season with back-to-back matches in California against Long Beach State and UC Irvine.
BYU head coach Lauren Jones-Spencer said she’s excited to play the tough competition in California to help her see what her team needs to work on to prepare for their first season in the West Coast Conference.
“It will be a challenging weekend,” Jones-Spencer said. “But I think it will be a good test for the girls and good for them to get some low altitude practice right off the bat.”
Senior and team captain Megan Price, from Kiama, Australia, said after getting to know the new players and getting the experience and success of the fall season under their belts, the team “can only go up from here.”
The team welcomes three freshmen to the roster, Lisa Waldron, Meghan Sheehan-Dizon and Morgan Anderson, making up nearly half the team. They join sophomore Desiree Tran and the three upperclassmen, Price, Andie Young and Aubrey Paul.
“Megan Price is our only senior this year and she’s our team captain,” Jones-Spencer said. “She’s done a good job at helping the girls and getting them prepared to know what to expect for matches and match play, because that’s hard for the freshmen because they don’t know what to expect.”
Waldron said they are excited, albeit nervous, to get their season started and the younger players look to the veteran players for leadership and guidance.
“They know what’s coming, so we look to them to see what to do and we keep the mindset of just play your game and don’t be nervous,” Waldron said.
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Price said the underclassmen, though young, have brought their own kind of experience and spirit to the team and they are all ready to start competing.
“We’re playing against two really tough teams,” Price said. “We’ve been working hard the last couple weeks, focusing on some things we want to implement in our matches this weekend.”
After a long month of practicing the team is ready to get out and play.
“A lot of other teams have already started playing and competing and so we’re anxious to get started,” Jones-Spencer said.
The Cougars start their season against Long Beach State Friday at 2 p.m. PST and UC Irvine Saturday at 11 a.m. PST.
