The club tennis team hosted a home scrimmage in Tostrud Fieldhouse on May 1. The team competed against two other club teams from regional rivals — Carleton College and Gustavus-Adolphus College. The scrimmage was designed to give the club an opportunity to play against similarly sized schools. “We are all D3 schools, we are all liberal arts schools, often we are the little schools showing up to tournaments with big D1 schools. It was just really fun for us to play similar schools and form bonds and relationships with other schools and clubs,” Zoe Garrett ’22 said.
Despite coming from a small school, the club is not afraid to battle with schools like the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities or the University of North Dakota. In fact, this year the club introduced a competitive travel team for the first time. The competitive team was designed to give opportunities to members who crave the more competitive aspects of the sport. The club also maintains a recreational group that focuses on learning and growing within the sport. “The reason we created a competitive branch was because some of us missed competing. We didn’t want to get rid of the recreational space because we wanted to maintain inclusivity,” Garrett said.
The competitive team has played in tournaments throughout the school year. The two biggest tournaments they competed in were sectionals at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and another tournament at the University of North Dakota. The club values the range of competition they are able to take part in. “Just competing at the U or going to sectionals is really fun because we are challenged by big schools we normally don’t get to play. We are also a really small school so sometimes it’s more fun to play the smaller liberal arts schools but it’s nice to have a wide variety of options and see all of the talent in the area,” Garrett said.
The club is winding down their competitive season for this school year, but there are still lots of opportunities for students to get involved in club tennis. Those interested in joining can look at the club’s webpage on Presence or look for the club at any of their recruiting events. The club hopes to continue to offer both a competitive and recreational space in future semesters.
