The DePauw women's tennis team won all three of its matches this past weekend to improve its record to 4-1.
Since its shutout loss in the first match of the season against No. 4 ranked University of Chicago, the 16th ranked Tigers have now won four straight matches, two while blanking their opponents.
The team started off strong on Saturday by sweeping its first opponent Luther College 9-0.
With that victory, the team was able to push its record above 500 and build up momentum going into Sunday's double-header against Oberlin College and Grand Valley State University.
The first of Sunday morning's matches saw the Tigers up against Oberlin. With only one loss suffered in a singles match, the team went on to win the competition 8-1 and continued its streak of dominant play.
Despite fatigue from a long weekend of matches, the team was able to pull out a win once again in its third match in two days against Grand Valley State. Even with two singles losses and one doubles loss, the team secured a 6-3 victory over the Lakers, making the team undefeated on the weekend.
Freshman Maggie MacPhail, who is playing No. 2 singles for the team, as well as doubles, mirrored her team's performance, going 6-0 over the weekend.
"The speed of play is definitely higher, so I've been having to get used to that," MacPhail said. "And another difference is that in high school you either play singles or doubles, but in college you have to play both. So I've been working really hard to get myself into better shape for the season."
MacPhail has won all her matches, except for the first, and is excited about her and the team's play.
"The season's been great so far," MacPhail said. "Yeah, we suffered a tough loss in our first match, but we've bounced back pretty well since. I'm happy with how the team's been coming together recently and our chemistry has been great. Now, I'm just excited to keep playing and see how well our team continues to progress."
With some tough matches scheduled for the rest of the season the team is looking to continue its camaraderie and confident play.
"First off, we hope to make the NCAC tournament and along the way beat Denison [University] and a few other teams that we suffered tough losses to last season," said freshman player Julie Wittwer. "We need to continue to work hard and stay in the groove that we've been in lately."
The Tigers now receive a break before their next match on March 8 against Ferris State University at home.
