The Weber State University women’s tennis team hosted Grand Canyon University on Feb. 19 in a mid-day match up. The day’s events were held at the Ogden Athletic Club, where there was some dry land for them to play.

Going into Sunday’s matchup, the team had a record of 0–7 and were desperately looking to pick up a win for the day.

The day began with the doubles matches, each of which Grand Canyon University ended up taking the win. The rest of the day was short and disastrous for the Wildcats as they only won one of their six matches.

The only notable match came from sophomore Caitlin Herb, who came out swinging as the only Wildcat to defeat her opponent.

Herb’s opponent, Tatum Prudhomme from Grand Canyon University, was a “very tough opponent to handle” according to assistant coach Mark Roberts.

Herb gave Prudhomme the first set, with a score of 6–4. Then Herb turned up the heat, winning the next two sets with scores of 7–6 and 10–3.

“I’m very happy that I stayed in the match and fought because I was struggling in the beginning,” Herb said. “I didn’t know what to do. She was forcing me to not play my game. So the coaches helped a lot with calming me down, and I ended up just playing my game and making more balls than her today, so I’m happy about the fight.”

Although Herb played well, two other notable players were junior Dominique Beauvais and freshman Tereza Pilzova.

Beauvais played two tough sets, losing the first one by a score of 6–3 and the second set to a closer score of 7–5.

Pilzova rallied to beat her opponent 6–4 in the first set. The next two sets however came close, but it wasn’t enough as Pilzova lost the second set 6–3 and the third set 6–1.

Although the Wildcats lost the day to Grand Canyon 6–1, the coaches saw some improvements by each of the Wildcats, though they still believe it wasn’t enough.

“Grand Canyon University is a good school, so its was always going to be tough for us to beat them today,” Roberts said. “The girls played okay. You know, we still need to keep improving in some areas, but it was just kind of average
today.”

Brad Ferreira, Weber State director of tennis, was impressed with how the team played but understands there is room for development.

“They were a better team than us on paper, and even though the score says 6–1, at the end of the day, we competed very well, and some of the girls did very good,” Ferreira said. “The score at the end of the day doesn’t really reflect on how close a few matches actually were today.”

The Wildcats will hit the court and look to get their first season win while hosting Portland State University on March 4 for the second Big Sky Conference matchup of the season. The Wildcats will host Nevada on March 5 at home.