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Youngstown State women’s tennis hopes for success in Horizon League tournament
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Members of the Youngstown State tennis team. From left, Nicole Haralambopoulos, head coach Michele Grim, Anna Volkova, Lauren Hankle, Tanisha Welch, Hannah Patten and Margarita Sadovnikova. The women hope senior leadership, provided by Haralambopoulos, Volkova and Welch, will help the Penguins to succeed in the Horizon League tournament later this month. The Penguins (6-12) have played all of their Horizon League foes already this season, and hope that experience can give them an edge in the tournament.
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Senior Anna Volkova serves the ball during a match between Youngstown State and Duquesne at the Boardman Tennis Center Tuesday. Volkova is one of three seniors on the team.
Seniors Leading the Charge
By JON MOFFETT
YOUNGSTOWN
It’s been a long and somewhat bumpy ride for the Youngstown State women’s tennis team. But coach Michele Grim said the end will hopefully justify the means.
“It’s been pretty good,” Grim said. “We’ve had our ups and downs, but the last part of the season, we’ve been playing better and getting more wins. And I think we’ve been playing more to our potential.”
The Penguins (6-12) are getting ready for the Horizon League tournament later this month. The top six, of 10, teams in the conference are seeded.
Though the team’s overall record is below what Grim had hoped for, its conference record of 4-3 gives her hope for the tournament.
Grim said she intentionally scheduled more difficult teams, such as West Virginia and California, early in the year to put some pressure on the team and give them a sense of competition.
“The first few matches, I scheduled pretty tough, hoping to get them prepared for the most important part of our season, which is conference play,” Grim said. “I think we’re better prepared now.”
Grim expects the Penguins to be seeded around five or six in the tournament, but believes the team can win the tournament.
One factor in the Penguins’ favor is having already played their conference opponents.
Grim said playing Horizon League rivals midseason can be a blessing in disguise, especially if the team had suffered a loss.
“A lot of times, I feel more confident after a loss,” she said. “Sometimes it’s hard to beat the same team twice in a row. And I’d rather beat them there [at the tournament] than here. Then they have to try and beat us twice, which is not easy to do.”
The second ace the Penguins have in their hand is the senior leadership. Of the six players on the roster, three are seniors.
Classmates Tanisha Welch, Nicole Haralambopoulos and Anna Volkova have all displayed leadership qualities, Grim said. And a strong group of upperclassmen is just what the program needed to retool.
“It really does help with the team,” Grim said. “To have positive influences on you is very important.”
Welch, 21, said when it comes to leadership, it just comes naturally to her.
“I kind of just lead by example,” she said. “I’m not really too much of a vocal leader, I just try to lead by example.”
But just because Welch doesn’t go out of her way to be a leader doesn’t mean she doesn’t think it’s important.
“It’s very important, because freshmen coming in might not be comfortable or know what to do,” she said. “But if they see someone who is older than them doing a good job on the court, and conducting themselves respectfully, they’ll know how to conduct themselves, too.”
Haralambopoulos, 22 and a native of Australia, said it’s important to have a close relationship with her teammates.
“You know, just stay motivated, having everyone stay happy and stay friendly and supporting each other,” she said. “We all go through our different things, but we’ve all got each others’ backs.”
The team is more like a group of friends, Haralambopoulos said.
Volkova, 21 and a native of Russia, said the team will be ready for the conference play, which begins April 23 in Indianapolis.
“I want to win all of my matches, and just support my team,” Volkova said.