Cougar tennis will take their 7-1 record to Lincoln this weekend to take on No. 29 Nebraska and Miami (Ohio).
After an eight-game home stand, WSU will play five of their next six dual-matches on the road.
“Going on the road is always a completely different experience-- with the traveling and the team meals and everything,” senior tennis player Elisabeth Fournier said. “Honestly I love it, and I think the whole team loves it. When you have great team chemistry like we do, going on a trip is just so much fun.”
WSU has had a week of practice to put last weekend’s home loss to No. 49 Sacramento State behind them.
“We’re pretty excited about this match,” freshman tennis player Elizaveta Luzina said. “We’ve been aggressive in our approach to practice this week. We’re ready to go. We’re ready to beat Nebraska.”
The trip to Lincoln will have an air of nostalgia for at least one of the members of the team.
“I used to play at Nebraska in college,” Head Coach Lisa Hart said. “So I guess you could say I’m familiar with their program.”
The Cougars will take on the Huskers in the first match of the weekend on Friday, followed by a dual against Miami (Ohio) on Saturday.
“We don’t know much about Miami (Ohio),” Hart said. “I don’t know if we’ve ever played them, if we have it’s been a long time. So it’ll be interesting to see how we match up against a team we don’t know a lot about.”
WSU is excited to have another chance at taking down a nationally ranked opponent, so they can break into those rankings themselves.
“Going straight to Nebraska after the Sacramento State loss is exactly what we need,” Fournier said. “There’s so much of the season still left and we don’t have time to linger and think about the loss. Heading to Nebraska is another great chance to battle and fight and show everyone what we’ve got in our team here.”
The strong team chemistry of Cougar tennis is apparent even in their mindset and attitude as they travel to Lincoln.
“I think these are two matches that we can win,” Hart said. “We just need to go in and play like we usually play, fight and be ready to battle. If we do that, I think there’s a good chance we can come back to Pullman with two more wins under our belt. This is a tremendous opportunity for us.”
