Tennis is Back: Tiffany Rheynard slices a ball dur­ing a match last sea­son. The women’s ten­nis team com­pleted the 2009–2010 sea­son with a 12–8 record and is begin­ning the 2010–2011 sea­son with high hopes of another win­ning sea­son. Photo Courtesy of Ferris State Athletics

After last season’s 12–8 over­all record, the Bulldog women’s ten­nis team hopes for another suc­cess­ful sea­son in 2010–2011.

With the loss of co-captain Daniela Dimas from last sea­son, the team hopes that new team­mate Alina Stanila will step up and help the team con­tinue its win­ning ways. Head coach Alex Palladino hopes Stanila, a trans­fer stu­dent from Romania, will come in and bol­ster the team’s chances for a con­fer­ence championship.

“I believe her impact on our line-up this sea­son will put us in strong con­tention for the league cham­pi­onship once again,” said Palladino.

In addi­tion to a new team mem­ber, the squad is more expe­ri­enced going into this sea­son and feels it can han­dle the com­pe­ti­tion bet­ter than in pre­vi­ous sea­sons. The team is also eager to prove that it’s a force within the GLIAC after last year’s 5^th-place fin­ish at the GLIAC tour­na­ment after tak­ing down fifth-seeded Ashland University in the open­ing round of the tournament.

Palladino said being stronger and more suc­cess­ful in sin­gles com­pe­ti­tion is a goal that the team has focused on this sea­son. Improving its dou­bles play was another focus as well this off­sea­son. But with all of the work that the team has put in this off­sea­son, hav­ing vet­eran expe­ri­ence is some­thing that the team will use to its advan­tage this year.

With last season’s team com­posed of mainly sopho­more play­ers, this year’s squad fea­tures an entire team of play­ers that have one or more years of col­le­giate expe­ri­ence under their belts. With a team built on expe­ri­ence, Palladino said he hopes his play­ers will believe in them­selves as a team, with the atti­tude that they can beat any­one at any time and come out on top in big matches.

Among the big matches the team is look­ing for­ward to this sea­son are con­tests against Michigan Tech, Wayne State, Northwood, and rival Grand Valley State, whom Ferris edged out last sea­son, 5–4. The Bulldogs know that they will have to show the top teams in the GLIAC that they can play with the best if they want to claim a con­fer­ence title this season.

As the sea­son approaches, the team hopes it will have a strong sea­son and improve from last year’s 12–8 cam­paign. Using their excite­ment along with their expe­ri­ence, the Bulldogs expect a strong fight this sea­son to prove that they belong at the top of the GLIAC.

With high expec­ta­tion for the sea­son, senior co-captain Amy Ingle knows that the team will live up to the hype.

“We expect our team to at least fin­ish in the top three in the GLIAC, and to once again qual­ify for the NCAA Regional Tournament in May and hope­fully win a round or two,” said Ingle. “We are all very excited to start our sea­son and pull out some big and unex­pected wins.” n