GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - After a very successful trip to the state of Florida for their annual spring break trip, the women's tennis team will play their first match back in the mitten against cross-town foe Calvin College on Friday at 4 p.m. The Lady Panthers, ranked just outside the NAIA Top-25, are 9-5 on the season after going 5-2 in the sunshine state last week.
Davenport head coach
Patrick Grashorn is excited about his team's progress as they come back to Michigan to continue their spring schedule against MIAA foe Calvin College. "We had a great week down in Florida overall", said Grashorn. "Both teams won the matches we were supposed to. Although the women lost to Brenau, it was encouraging to see that we aren't far from being at the same level."
The team has battled some injuries along the way and have used some different lineups including
Emily Spiech appearing at No. 1 singles and
Savannah Smith making numerous appearances at No. 6 with the rest of the lineup shuffling as well. “Now that we are back home, the kids will need to take care of some injuries that happened in Florida”, added Grashorn. “It's been a long time since we played a match at full strength. It's likely that we'll still have changes in the lineups for the next few matches up until conference play begins.”
Calvin comes into the match 1-2 on the year with a shutout occurring in all three times out. The Knights defeated Cornerstone 9-0 but fell to Coe and Wheaton without recording a point falling 8-0 and 9-0. Calvin is always one of the top teams in the MIAA and will compete again for a championship. “It always means a lot playing against Calvin”, said Grashorn. “Both them and Hope have traditionally had strong programs. If we can have a strong showing against them, the momentum would certainly carry into conference play.”
