The Augustana women’s tennis team has a full week ahead of them as they will be taking on both North Park University and Elmhurst College in two CCIW matches on Wednesday and Saturday respectively.
Despite the challenge, head coach Jon Miedema said this is not too uncommon due to their alternative way of scheduling.
“There is not a set schedule we have. Ours is all done by the coaches,” Miedema said. “It’s not unusual that we would have a couple in a week.”
However, the upcoming matches will not be treated any differently by the team. Captain and senior Dana Goggin said the title of CCIW on the matches does not phase the team in any way. They go into any match looking at it the same way and with the same mindset.
Miedema said the team should do very well in both matches.
“I expect us to play well. North Park has a very experienced one and two singles player and Elmhurst is similar, in that as far as their one, two, three are talented players,” Miedema said.  “Those are significant matches for us.”
In the past 2015-2016 season, Augustana beat both North Park and Elmhurst with matching scores of 9-0.
Miedema attributes the success of a so far undefeated season to his players.
“We have a lot of talented players on our team and a lot of players with a lot of experience,” Miedema said.
Goggin also feels what sets them apart from their competition is their closeness.
“We’re a very close team. Everyone gets along really well. Everyone also has respect for each other on the team and that’s a really good baseline to work off of,” Goggin said.  “We are also all very competitive players.”
Goggin also commented on the size of the team.
“We’ve normally had it from 10-12 players so we’ve definitely shrunk a lot. We’re not used to it but we’ve actually grown to like it I think,” Goggin said.
Last weekend, the Augustana team went to the ITA tournament in Kalamazoo, MI. This tournament was expected to be a positive challenge for the players. The tournament, according to Miedema, had about 14 of the top 20 teams in the region.
“To have those teams there is important and everyone is put in the same bracket so our players are going to play good players, and that’s helpful as long as it doesn’t hurt us too much mentally,” Miedema said. “But our team is strong enough that they can handle that.”