Two members of the women’s tennis team stepped onto the court for the first time this season in the Landfall Invitational, hosted by UNC-Wilmington last weekend. Sophomore Diana Mortlock and freshman Chloe Smith paired up to represent the Pack in both doubles and singles.
According to coach Hans Olsen, he is working on the line-up and adjusting doubles partnerships.
“We wanted to try them as a doubles team,” Olsen said. “We have a young team with some new matchups, yet it’s too early to say which ones will be good.”
Kicking off the weekend tournament, the duo took down Brooke Mosteller and Susan Bitetti of Furman, 8-0. Following their success, Mortlock and Smith played Kansas’ Erin Wilbert and Sarah Lazarevic, falling 8-3.
“It was our first tournament playing together,” Mortlock said. “We were feeling out the chemistry we had on the court and Kansas came up really solid.”
Saturday the doubles team played Kayla Schwenk and Christina Riley of UNCW, but lost in a close contest, 8-6.
Mortlock said even though the match ended in a loss, she was pleased with the team’s efforts.
“We were working on a lot of things since we haven’t practiced much doubles yet,” Mortlock said. “We didn’t win but we competed very well. With each match played the chemistry we had on the court, as a team, got a lot better.”
On the singles court, Smith has already made a name for herself, defeating nationally ranked No.109 Lindsay Leblang of UNCW in her first match for the Wolfpack. Smith beat Leblang in straight sets, 6-4, 7-6 (4), and Olsen said she won because of how well she maintained her concentration.
“Heading into the tournament, Chloe was working on maintaining concentration for longer periods of time,” Olsen said. “And in that match she did a really good job of that, especially late in the match and on big points.”
Smith said she is happy with her first ever college victory and was proud of herself for battling all the way to the end of the match.
“It was a really good match,” Smith said. “I just had to battle it out to the very end. I feel pretty good, overall, with my performance.”
On Saturday, Smith lost a long match to Bitetti of Furman, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 10-7.
Mortlock didn’t have much success in singles, losing in the third set to Victoria Sekley of Georgetown 2-6, 7-5, 10-7. Mortlock also fell to Ekaterina Morozova of Kansas, 6-2, 6-2 on Saturday.
Mortlock said she entered the tournament a little nervous from having not played in a while.
“I was kind of rusty and your nerves are pretty high playing your first few matches,” Mortlock said. “I learned a lot from my matches and I was really able to use that experience for the match on the last day.”
On the final day of competition Mortlock was able to gain a singles victory, taking down Lazarevic of Kansas, 6-2, 6-2.
“I felt like in that match everything really came together,” Mortlock said.
Smith did not get a chance to wrap up the tournament, due to injury. She lost by default to Lauren Kline of Furman.
“It was a high groin strain,” Olsen said. “Chloe has been working with the trainer and hopefully she will be back on the court this week. I don’t think it’s anything serious, it just needed a bit of attention.”
With the first tournament of the year under its belt, Olsen is looking forward to the team’s next competition. The Pack will travel again to compete in the University of Virginia Invitational this weekend.
“It’s good to see the girls in competitions and see how they respond in different situations,” Olsen said. “It helps us to narrow our focus more on what we need to work on.”
