Listen HereFinding consistency is key for the Oilers
By Collin Frazier
@Collin_53
While the majority of the University of Findlay Tennis season does not occur until the spring, that does not mean the Oilers have kept quiet in the Fall portion of their season. If anything, it is an opportunity for them to work on form, which has been going well so far.
“I like our well-roundedness around hitting balls,” sophomore Brayden Doherty stated. “We’ve got some players that have good forehands, some players have good backhands, a couple of good serves and [I] feel like everyone’s pretty good at doubles as well.”
Of course, that doesn’t mean everything is perfect. And Doherty feels while hitting balls may look good, keeping it going is a different story.
“[We need to work on] high consistency — just constantly getting that ball in the court hitting one more ball than the opposition, definitely. And we’re working on that at the moment in practice.”
Consistency, as important as it is to a successful match, is something only achieved during practice, not the matches themselves.
“Consistency can only be built off the court,” Doherty explained. “I feel like endurance can help with consistency, so with helping our bodies hit more than one ball on the court, we can work on that off the court. Going running or even lifting can [help].”
While most of tennis is an individual sport, that does not mean team chemistry is irrelevant. If anything, it serves as a good boost during the matches.
“When we’re playing singles and we’re on our own, the team’s always there,” Doherty commented. “There’s always at least three or four people there supporting us whenever we’re all playing at the same time. So, we’ve always got someone supporting us off the court even if we’re on the court on our own.”
While nothing official resumes until February, the Oilers already have two matches under their belts, with a win against Oberlin and a loss against Case Western Reserve. Furthermore, they will continue exhibition matches until then, with a rematch against Case Western up next.
“We’ve played Case before [and] we’re very excited about the Case match. We played them only two weeks ago and we’re excited to be back,” Doherty said. “We took an ‘L’ last time, but we’re excited to be back [with] what we’re what we’re improving on because we’re already playing better than what we did the last time we played them.”
