Lady Hawks to open season on Saturday

By Chuck Tidmore

Sports Information Assistant

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Huntingdon women's tennis team will open its season on Saturday and is looking to replace several players from last season.

The Lady Hawks took the courts in mid-January and head coach Ximena Moore has been impressed with her team's performance this preseason.

"I think we have improved tremendously since the fall," Moore said. "The girls understand what we are trying to do. We have worked a lot on fundamentals and strategies. We have a young team with nine players, but they have all impressed me.

The Lady Hawks enter the 2016 season ranked fifth in the USA South Athletic Conference preseason poll. Huntingdon finished last season with a 9-3 conference record and fell to Piedmont in the opening round of the USA South tournament.

Moore doesn't think that the preseason standings will have an impact on her team.

"The standings don't mean much to us," Moore said. "Just because you're picked fifth, doesn't mean that is where you'll finish. We are concentrating on getting better day-by-day and match-by-match.

"It's a tough conference. There are certain conference opponents that are key matches, and if we perform well against them, we will make it to the conference tournament, which is our goal."

Huntingdon is looking to replace last season's No. 1 (Hannah Still) and No. 2 (Sarah Warren) singles players. 

The Lady Hawks return three players who played last season. Sandy Mayson finished with a 5-7 singles record and 7-7 doubles record. Octavia Pendleton went 6-0 in singles matches and went 5-4 in doubles. Caroline McBroom had a 10-3 singles record and a 9-6 doubles record.

Moore is expecting her young girls to step up and has been happy with the leadership of her captains – Pendleton and Mayson.

"What's great about this year's roster is the team chemistry," Moore said. "I can throw different doubles combinations and the girls work great together in the different groups."

Huntingdon opens its season on Saturday against Tougaloo at 9 a.m. and Centenary at 2 p.m. On Sunday, the Lady Hawks will play Millsaps College at 10 a.m. All three matches will be at Millsaps College.