The Hamline University Men’s and Women’s Tennis teams continue on their season, kicking off the first couple of matches for this spring. Both tennis teams competed in back to back matches on Feb. 7 and 8 in De Pere, Wisconsin, taking on two different colleges. After the fall portion of their season ended, the Men’s team was beginning their spring matches with 0-2 overall and the Women’s team was 2–3.
On Friday, Feb. 7, the Pipers took on St. Norbert’s College in an away match at Green Bay Tennis Center. Both the Men’s and Women’s teams took home a win against St. Norbert’s. Men’s tennis prevailed in all doubles events and were able to pull off four singles wins making their overall final score for the match 5–2. Following suit, Women’s tennis conquered in a 7–0 win, sweeping in all single events and won in two of the double events in addition.
After their wins against St. Norbert’s, the tennis teams took on Augusta College on Saturday, Feb. 8, competing in their second matchup of the week. Hamline Men’s tennis lost in a 2–5 match against Augusta. Despite the loss junior Men’s team captain Tyler Rousslang and graduate student Rumeal Setts won their singles matches helping score some points for the Men’s team. The Women’s team pulled off their second win this spring against Augusta in a 5–2 match win. Junior player Christine Muller and sophomore Elanna Kohner found success in their doubles match, clinching the only doubles win for the Women’s team that day.
When interviewed about what he has learned about himself from playing tennis, Rousslang said,
“I’d say just getting out of my comfort zone. I am always a really positive person outside of tennis. I definitely get down on myself when I’m playing tennis it’s a very just a you sport–singles by yourself, and doubles you know you have a partner but it is definitely very isolating.” Rousslang said. “I would say this year especially I have been trying my best to take the steps to be a very very positive person on and off the court. Smiling through it all, you know you missed a shot? It’s okay, no worries, next one, right? So that is kind of the mindest I am trying to emphasize this year.”
Although the Men’s and Women’s tennis teams are a smaller team compared to most other Hamline sports teams, the team morale and support is stronger than most.
“Team wise, the support is just more supportive than in high school. There is [not any] conflict with communication between each other. It’s just like the support is amazing,” Mueller said. “We all want just what is best for each other. We’re not being petty or angry about spots or anything.”
This past fall the tennis team has been able to play on the Hamline campus with the reopening of the Holt Courts at Jeff Green & Family Tennis Center.
“We just had our court dedication and just this past summer we got our courts completely redone. And now we actually have a spot on campus, so we have a lot of our spring matches there, Mueller said. “Honestly just coming out and showing up for a little bit, or just coming out and watching our practices. We’ll be there very often [such as] Monday through Friday and then our matches on Saturdays.”
Some upcoming matches that both Mueller and Rousslang are looking forward to are against Saint Mary’s, their first conference match against St. Scholastica, St. Olaf, and of course the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) matches. Mueller said,
“A huge goal to get our first MIAC win for the Women’s team because in the years that Spencer has coached the women’s team, he hasn’t had a MIAC win yet. So that’s like a huge goal for us.”
