Youthful Women’s Tennis team eyes new year
MEQUON, Wis. – The Falcons will take the court this week for the first time since May. The Falcons will field a youthful team this fall, with nine underclassmen. The youth has led an abundance of excitement on the court.
"I'm excited to work with what I think is a whole new team," said head coach Steve Anschutz. "I know that we have a lot of sophomores who have experience, but some of them didn't get a whole lot of playing time last year so this year we are going to have a lot of new players. We have nine underclassmen and one upperclassmen. That is cool for me because we going to grow a lot, we are going to learn a lot so it's going to be a fun. We might have some failures, we might have some upsets, but it is going to be a growing season and I always love those, they are fun for me, I can build a new culture and I'm looking forward to it."
The Falcons look for another battle this year in the Northern Athletics Colligate Conference. The Blue and White finished in second place last year and advanced to the NACC Tournament Finals
"I think it will be a battle for second for second place," said Anschutz. "With us being young and IIT losing their best player I think that we are going to be close to one another. I think that we will have a good competition. Edgewood returns their top-four players, they lost their bottom two and they brought in some good recruits so they are going to be really tough to beat with that much seniority and that much experience they should do very well and be great competition for us to get some more experience with for this young team."
The 2019-20 roster is filled with nine underclassmen, including four freshmen.
"I am looking at it like I have nine newer players and one returner," said Anschutz. "The reason I am looking at it that way a lot of those payers didn't get a lot of playing time so it's a lot of new players, new faces on the court on a consistent basis. For me I am taking this whole year and looking at it if we have a new team. We did a lot of workshops during try outs, we did a lot of team building and chemistry stuff. I really like what I am seeing. We are excited for the future and looking forward. I think we will have a great career ahead of us with many of these ladies."
The Blue and White return two All-NACC selections in sophomore Ricki Budewitz (Watertown, Wis.) and senior Rebekah Spiegelhoff (Mount Pleasant, Wis.). Budewitz is the reigning NACC Freshman of the Year.
The Falcons will host seven matches in the fall. CUW will open the year on Friday against Carroll. The Blue and White also host MSOE, Concordia Chicago, Dominican, Wisconsin Lutheran, Alverno and Lakeland.
