Sinclair women’s tennis team traveled to the NJCAA Region Championship and won first place in doubles and singles. The team received third place overall, which cemented their place in the national tournament this spring.
Coach Dave Pence is very proud of the women and how they came together as a team over the course of the season.
“We did a very good job at regionals,” said Pence. “As a team we have only had seven or eight weeks together so I’m very pleased with the comradery we have built.”
Tory Painter won the singles tournament even though she was bothered with injuries. She is coming back from ACL surgery and also had two ribs that were out of place throughout the championship.
She was wearing a brace around her ribs to help her, but throughout the tournament she could not hit an overhead shot because of the pain, until the last shot according to Pence.
“The championship match for Tory was exciting and climatic,” said Pence. “They were going back and forth and when Tory hit the overhead shot for the win it seemed like she just said I’m going to go all out on this shot and end it here.”
Painter and her doubles partner Karen Haviland dominated their doubles tournament and actually had it wrapped up on the first day of matches.
“I did not tell them immediately that they actually had the doubles championship won,” said Pence. “But I told them before their last match because I didn’t want them to go out there and possibly injure themselves.”
Injuries have been a major issue this year according to Pence but he is very pleased with how his team performed.
“We would have players who got injured and they would flare up consistently,” said Pence. “We have had a rough four weeks of matches.”
With the third place finish at regionals, the team will more than likely be ranked nationally according to Pence. So they will possibly be facing tougher competition on top of an already tough schedule.
“Being the only community college team in Ohio we normally play against four year schools but a lot of times we go to them,” said Pence. “So we’re trying to bring some more home games in the spring.”
But he believes that under different circumstances the team could have performed even better and will in the future.
“We had the toughest draw of any team in my opinion,” said Pence. “On the first day we faced the two teams who winded up being in first and second place. And I believe because we were in our first major tournament the team was a bit nervous because we started slow.”
Pence wants to build on this and more for the spring season which leads to nationals on May 6-13 in Tucson, Ariz.
“My main goal for us is to build on our experience for nationals,” said Pence. “We need to get healthy and better condition ourselves because the heat out there will be a factor.”