Long Break Brings High Hopes for Women’s Tennis

For everyone involved in intercollegiate athletics, the afternoon of March 13, 2020, was one of the most surreal days in their lifetime. One day saw the cancellation of countless events across every sport and division of the NCAA due to the frightening and uncertain nature of the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the benefit of hindsight, the governing institutions of college sports made the best decision for everyone involved. In the moment, however, the decision sent the college sports world into a tailspin.
 
The Texas A&M women's tennis program was unsurprisingly shocked by the cancellation announcement on that fateful spring Friday. The Aggies had just returned from a successful road trip that featured an impressive 4-2 dual match win over the Florida Gators in Gainesville. A&M battled through the first four matches of SEC play, which included three grueling road events, and the Maroon & White were looking forward to a five-match homestand against SEC opponents. Unfortunately, the remainder of the season was cut short. Texas A&M head coach Mark Weaver recalls the startling and discouraging finish to the 2020 campaign.
 
"I feel like in a lot of ways we were just starting to hit our stride," Weaver remembered. "For whatever reason, the end of the season is usually when our team starts to take off. That last weekend of the season we had a close loss to a very good South Carolina team, but we were able to bounce back on the road at Florida, which is one of the premier programs in all of women's tennis. The beginning of the season had a lot of road SEC matches, so by the time the season ended we hardly had any home conference matches to speak of."
 
The abrupt end to the team's season involved many difficult decisions and emotional conversations, and understandably so. Whenever the entire world is put on pause because of unprecedented historical events, a measure of dismay is to be expected. Coach Weaver looked back on the discussion among the team.
 
"It was a very tough conversation," Weaver recalled. "We all got together in the player's lounge as a team, and I explained that the season was called off. There were a lot of really sad faces and pretty much everyone was in disbelief. Looking back, it was the right decision to end the season at that point, but at the moment, everyone was stunned. At the end of the day, the girls kept their composure and we dealt with it."
 
Junior Tatiana Makarova opened up about the feelings she and her teammates were experiencing when they got the news.
 
"I think for every one of us, it was challenging and shocking to stop the season," Makarova said. "Just before the rest of our matches got canceled, we were ready to go and compete against Mississippi State, and then our coaches told us that the whole season was over. It was shocking for all of us, so we used the first couple of weeks to analyze where we were individually and as a team. I got back into the gym as soon as possible to lift, but I had to improvise a lot in the offseason."
 
Although COVID-19 introduced new barriers to teamwork, every member of the team managed to put together a productive offseason on an individual basis. Coach Weaver discussed the new opportunities that the pandemic afforded him and his family. 
 
"I always try to find the positives in the negatives," Weaver stated. "For me, it was a bit of an adjustment. Any time the season ends, whether you make the NCAA Finals or you exit sooner, that high of adrenaline ends pretty quickly. I was able to spend a lot more time with my daughter and my family that I normally wouldn't have been able to do, so in a lot of ways, I was able to enjoy that in a way I couldn't in a normal tennis season. I'll truly always be able to treasure that."
 
Junior Katya Townsend found new ways to improve her game during the shutdown period and focused a great deal on improving her physical conditioning in the aftermath of a trying elbow injury.
 
"Towards the end of the season last year, my elbow was bothering me a lot," Townsend said. "So once the season ended, I went home for a couple of weeks to recover and unwind. Then, I returned to College Station and got to work with our trainers to help correct my elbow injury and get back to 100 percent. I was here with a couple of teammates this summer, and we would work out together every day. When the opportunity for optional team gym workouts came up, I never missed one. I've stepped up my fitness and conditioning a lot since last season."
 
Following an arduous 10 month break from dual-match play, Texas A&M looks to improve on the success that it experienced last season. The Maroon & White finished 13-4 in the shortened 2020 campaign, and the team has high hopes for the year to come.
 
"I think that since our team has spent so much time together, we have a real opportunity to go out and compete to be one of the best teams in the nation this season," Townsend added.  "I have all the confidence in the world in this team and each one of my teammates."
 
Makarova is setting the bar high for herself and her teammates this year. The Moscow, Russia, native talked about how important it is for the team to remain united through an uncertain year ahead.
 
"Honestly, the most important thing for me and this team this season is to put a big emphasis on teamwork and developing our culture as a family," Makarova remarked. "This team does feel like a family, because we are all there for each other, even when one of us wasn't playing well, we were there to pick each other up. If we do that and continue to work hard, we will have an opportunity to be one of the best teams this semester."
 
Coach Weaver said that he and his staff would look to emphasize consistency and effort throughout the season. He expressed his excitement to return to the courts and detailed his expectations for what will be an interesting 2021 season.
 
"We always have very lofty goals," Weaver explained. "We want to play at a very high level and be in a position to compete for conference championships and national titles each year. It's truly just tough to say for sure right now. Every team in the nation is trying to figure things out. We haven't competed in over ten months as a team, and it has a bizarre feel to it all. We expect to get better from day to day and match to match and play really strong tennis. There's a lot of work to do and we're excited to get things going."
 
Texas A&M women's tennis gets set to open the 2021 season at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center, as the Aggies host a doubleheader against Houston and Prairie View A&M on Monday, January 18. The first serve for the season against Houston is scheduled for noon, with the matchup against Prairie View A&M slated for 4 p.m.