The Thunderbirds are back!
This past weekend, the UBC TSC Women’s Tennis Team hopped on a plane to Edmonton to compete in friendly matches against the University of Calgary Dinos and the University of Alberta Pandas. It was the team’s first trip in nearly two seasons, with notable performances by both rookies and veterans alike. Overall, the Thunderbirds took a convincing 7-0 win against the Dinos, but came up short 0-7 against the reigning National Champions.
After flying in early on Saturday, the Thunderbirds came out strong against the Calgary Dinos. The doubles point was easily captured, with 8-0 wins by No.2 Yizhen Song and Crystal Sher as well as the No. 3 team Julia Rees and Michelle Lim. The singles results followed a similar narrative. In their debuts, No.4 Rees and No.6 Sher steamrolled their opponents with 6-0,6-1 and 6-0,6-0 wins over Brielle Hrymoc and Nini Phan respectively. On court No. 1, Fan also took a quick and cool 6-2,6-0 over Julia Gospodinov. Lim fought off a 2-5 position in the second set winning five straight games to take
her singles 7-5, 7-5 against Sophie Verdar on court No. 3–and the night viktoriously ended with No.2 Abanos securing the final point in a third set tiebreak battle showdown against Maddy Fraser.
After a night’s rest, the Thunderbirds returned to the Saville Tennis Center to face the home team, the U of A Pandas. The Thunderbirds started slow in the doubles, unable to secure any of the pro-sets, and dropping the doubles point. In singles, despite tight games, the team was unable to secure any opening sets. On court No. 1, Fan fought hard, but came up short 6-1,6-2 to Alberta’s Jenna Cheng. No. 3, Yizhen Song and No. 4 Lim campaigned hard in their second sets, but each fell short in the end, dropping 6-2, 7-5 to Alex Jewitt and 6-3,6-4 to Tereza Simona respectively. On court No. 5 and No. 6, Rees and Evans were also unable to convert, with losses to Jessica Kreutz and Katie Johnson.
Overall, it was a successful outing for the team with a lot of room to grow moving forwards in the season. Club Lead Evans summed it up: “I think I speak for the entire team when I say it was great to be back on court competing again. A lot of great tennis was played and I am super proud of the team. We are all quite excited about where the rest of the season will take us.”
These mark the final matches of the 2021 year for the UBC Women’s Tennis Team. After UBC reading break concludes this Sunday, the Thunderbirds will be back at work on the practice courts. They will be training hard in preparation for regionals at the UBC Tennis Centre coming up early in the new year.
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