Lady Flames fall short
Liberty women’s tennis team falls short in Big South semifinals
After a heartbreaking Big South Championship Semifinals loss to Charleston Southern (17-2), the Liberty University women’s tennis team (12-12) ended their 2016-2017 season April 22.
However, Head Coach Jeff Maren thinks next season will be an even stronger season with four new recruits.
“It was heartbreaking,” Maren said.
“I felt really sad for the girls who fought so hard to win that match.
I know they felt that if they had won that match, they would have had a really good shot at winning the title the
next day.”
The Flames had control for the majority of the match, leading the Buccaneers 3-2 going into the final two singles matches.
Charleston Southern’s Sophie Cloessner beat Liberty’s Evangeline Crist in two-sets and was able to tie the match at 3-3.
In the No. 5 match, Liberty’s Emily Groeneveld held on with the set total being 5-1 at one point, but Buccaneers senior Valeria Koussenkova ultimately beat Groeneveld, winning the match for Charleston Southern 4-3.
“(Groeneveld’s) match was a combination of her getting a little bit nervous and her opponent playing better, so that is just a bad combination,” Maren said.
“Her opponent felt like because it was 5-1 she had nothing to lose so she started hitting hard and trying to hit big shots and it was working.”
Groeneveld, who was a transfer from East Carolina, is currently a senior.
She has not only had a great season, with wins in six of her seven matches in the conference, but a great career at Liberty.
“It was tough to see (Groeneveld) have that be her last match, but at the same time she has had a good college career, so we want to emphasize the positives,” Maren said.
“She has done a lot more good than bad.”
Just over a week prior to this game, the Flames beat Charleston Southern at home with the same score except in Liberty’s favor, 4-3.
In the Quarterfinals, Liberty crushed Campbell (8-13), 4-1.
It was in this match where Crist claimed her 75th doubles win of her career.
Crist is a junior who had 17 overall singles wins and 19 doubles wins.
She was named on the Big South First Team All-Conference Singles team selection for 2016 and 2017.
She is just the fourth in Liberty’s history to have multiple appearances on the all-conference singles team.
Crist’s doubles partner Anna Dollar also took the same award this year for the Conference Second Team.
She also made the Second Team All-Conference Doubles team in 2016.
“Evangeline Crist and Anna Dollar are exceptional people and tennis players,” senior Mariely Hassey said.
“They both have amazing potential in them to reach such great heights and break program records that I would encourage them to continue to work hard every single day to reach their goals.”
The team has come a long way.
On the first day of school this season, the Flames lost their number one player to a career-ending injury.
Maren said that just like in any other sport, it can be difficult to keep playing with such a major loss early on.
“When you lose your number one player, it really changes things,” Maren said.
“That affected things a little bit, but the team really bonded so I think the highlight of our season was the family atmosphere that we had.”
This loss allowed the team to rally together and work together more as a team, which was a key aspect towards the overall success of the season.
“This 2016-17 team has been the closest team I have ever seen from any team in the country, and it has gotten us all through some hard times both on and off the court,” Hassey said.
“There is something unique and special to fight harder for your teammates, which allowed us to beat teams or players we would have never been able to beat on our own.”
Even though the team is losing three seniors this year, they will be gaining four new recruits for next year.
Two of them are transfers, Maria Medina and Lara Soares, both international players from Venezuela and Brazil respectively.
Because these players have experience playing at the collegiate level, Coach Maren said they will be great additions for the team next year.
Copeland is a sports reporter.