The Ashland University women’s tennis team hosted a tournament against Grove City College on Wednesday, Sept. 13.

The tournament was the team’s first being led by new head coach Eric Gibson, and heading into it he stressed the importance of the preparation leading up to the match. 

“At practice we’ve been playing point play, and just kind of trying to simulate the match as good as possible,” Gibson said.  “So, we felt pretty prepared coming in here, on home soil especially.” 

Gibson found that it’s always hard having a new head coach, however he found the transition to be smooth on the women’s team. 

“I think the transition here has been pretty smooth to be honest,” he said.  “We have good team culture, good team chemistry.  The ladies get along pretty well.” 

He expressed gratitude to the entirety of his team; however, when asked he believed one player stuck out. 

“Constanza, she played very very well,” he said.  “She won I believe it was 0-1.  She just won very convincingly, played her game, didn’t let her opponent play her game.  Was just very calm throughout the match.” 

Constanza Arancibia Caceres, a sophomore for the Eagles, went 6-0 in doubles with sophomore Ana Penteado. She then performed well in singles going 6-0 and 6-1. 

It was Caceres’ first match coming off a successful freshman season, but she expressed nothing less than confidence in herself and her team. 

“I was going very confident into the match,” she said.  “We had some good trainings lately and the new coach has help us a lot, his enthusiasm and positivity gave us a lot of energy and confidence.” 

Although Caceres received praises from her coach, she found there were a few things she needed to improve on. 

“I need to get better at closing the games,” she said.  “I had a lot of chances that I did not use correctly but besides that I think it was a good match.” 

While the team was able to show up and show out to start the season, Caceres believes some things still need worked on.

“I feel like we have a better team this year and we can do much better moving forward,” she said. 

Coach Gibson and Caceres both vocalized the importance of fan support, and encouraged all fans to show up because they aided in the team’s victory against Grove City College. 

The Ashland University men and women’s team will host their next home match against Mount Union on Saturday, Sept. 23.

“To all Ashland tennis fans, we really appreciate it when you come support us at our home matches, we need more energy,” Caceres said.