The IUS women’s tennis team is once again on top of the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference coaches’ preseason poll.

In the poll, released Aug. 15, the team earned six first place votes, putting the defending conference regular season and tournament winners ahead of the competition.

IU East was ranked second, with Asbury University in third.

“It’s an honor to be selected as the favorite,” Ashley Bunch, nursing junior, said. “It makes us determined to win.”

Though the team is coming off of its 10th consecutive conference title win and the preseason honor, the team said they do not let the pressure of succeeding bother them.

The team views any pressure to win as a privilege they have earned. Instead of focusing on the pressure to live up to their ranking, the team concentrates on their drive to succeed for themselves and each other.

“We don’t feel like we have to [win], but we feel like we want to for our self,” Bunch said.

Katherine Clark, business sophomore, said the expectation to win makes the team more determined to work hard in practice and during a match. She also said that determination to beat the other teams helps to make them more appreciative when they do capture a victory pushing them harder for another.

A newcomer to the team, Maddie Ikerd, freshman, said she does feel pressure, not from her teammates but from herself to succeed and help carry on the winning legacy.

“I’m not nervous [during a match], but I do feel pressure to do well and win,” Ikerd said.

Lead by Jenni Walters, IUS head tennis coach, the team consisting of two juniors, three sophomores and two freshmen. The team is one of the smallest in the conference but that does not affect their confidence in having a good season.

“Small but mighty” is a phrase the team has adopted as an unofficial motto.

Brittney Coan, biology junior, said Walters tells them it does not matter how big the team is as long as they have the best women on the roster.

“Our coach looks for quality over quantity when it comes to recruiting,” Coan said.

Without any seniors on the team, Bunch and Coan have stepped up to be the leaders for the team. The undergraduates said they acknowledge their great leadership as key to their success.

The close-knit, family-like atmosphere that exists between the teammates is something they also credit to their success, and they say separates them from their competition.

“We like to hang out together outside of practice and games,” Coan said.

Instead of each individual concentrating on what will make them the best, they put their attention on motivating and inspiring each other to be the best they can be.

During matches and practices, they said they become the biggest and loudest cheerleaders for their teammates, rooting each other on.

They feel just as – if not more – excited for their teammates victories as they do for their own.

Looking at the season ahead, which officially begins on Sept. 8, with a home match, the team said they hope to recreate and improve upon the previous season’s success.

“I want to be able to go three for three,” Bunch said, in regards to another conference title.

The team also said they want to be able to make it to the National tournament in Mobile, Ala., as they did for the first time last year.

By KALI SCHMUCKIE

Staff

kaschmuc@ius.edu