Jan. 29, 2013

TUCSON, Ariz. -

Hey Wildcat Fans!

The cats got back from a very nice and interesting trip to Texas! We took off for Texas A&M in College Station, Texas last Thursday at 2 p.m. We flew into Dallas. Once we arrived there, we had a little layover time and decided to have dinner. We all had a good BBQ dinner, but this was not enough for the Cats because we still had some room for a sandwich and coffee. You can tell, the Cats can eat well! ;)

After a nice dinner, we got into the smallest airport I have ever seen in College Station! We got our luggage in no time and drove to our hotel not far away from the airport. We all had big rooms to ourselves, so we always had some good rest for the following day.

Friday morning, we headed to the fantastic tennis facility of Texas A&M. We practiced for a good amount of time, so we all were able to get used to the courts and the humid weather. Everyone looked solid and ready to take on our first opponent, Minnesota.

After our practice, we all had lunch and went back to the hotel where we relaxed a bit and got some studying done. That evening, we had a good big meal for the match that Saturday. We had to wait for a solid hour before we were seated, but Susan and Kiki stepped up and they arranged a table for us. We all had a great meal--we had salad, garlic bread, and all kind of pastas. So we all were ready to take on Minnesota.

Saturday was the day that we were gone face Minnesota. Our match was planned for 10 a.m., but we didn’t get to play until noon due to rain, but we were all warmed up and ready to go!

No. 3 won again in doubles and No.s 1 and 2 doubles had tough losses, both losing in a tiebreaker. The Cats lost their doubles point, but that did not affect us at all, because we were all excited to play a solid Minnesota team in singles.

I played a girl that I beat last year, so I was prepared to play her again and beat her 6-2, 6-0. It was very nice, because at one point there was a family who was cheering me on--it’s always nice to have a few fans wherever you go.

Lacey was the second Cat to put the second point on the scoreboard for the cats. She had a good match and won in three sets.

Thirdly, we had our freshie,  Shayne Austin, who had a great win and performed really well for us and the third point was on the board for the Cats. We needed one more point to win the match and that point came from our junior Susan Mc Rann. She fought really hard and competed till the very last point, winning in three sets. So the Cats defeated Minnesota 4-2. We all were very happy, because it was not an easy win, Minnesota was a tough team and that makes the win even better!

After the match, we immediately went to a Mexican restaurant, had some nice crisps with some salsa and off course followed with some good chicken fajitas. A good meal and off to the hotel for good night of rest!

Sunday we faced the No. 13 school Texas A&M. We all were very excited to play such a good and high-ranked school. We started off a little shaky in doubles, losing at Nos. 1 and 2. Susan and Kiki did win at No. 3, but unfortunately we lost our doubles point.

We all were excited for the singles, but I think we still were emotionally involved with the previous match against Minnesota. We played well, we had some chances in the first sets, but we did not manage to stay in our second sets. We lost 4-0.

Overall, it was a fantastic trip, we learned a lot from each other, we all learned our lessons and we know what we need to improve on. So we all take the positives out of this trip and bring it over in our next match. We will play Sacramento State on Saturday and Texas Tech on Saturday at your Robson Tennis Center! I hope to see you all out there to cheer for your fantastic women’s tennis team on!

Have a good week and I look forward to seeing you this weekend!

BEAR DOWN CATS!