When sophomore Briana Ryan first joined the UT Tennis team her mind was set on only one thing, improving her tennis abilities.
And she’s been doing so ever since her freshman year. Ryan, up until the match against St. Petersburg College, had collected seven victories in singles and four in doubles competition, better than just her four victories in the singles competition last season.
“When I first met Coach DuFaux I liked him and when I came to the school I liked it too,” said Ryan. “I saw Plant Hall and I thought it was pretty cool. Then, I met the girls and thought that I could have a great time here.”
After making the team and experience her first wins as a Spartan last season, the biology major knows she has had an athletic growth playing for Coach DuFaux.
“I think I became more of a consistent player. Consistency is what helps you win matches at UT, you can’t just smash the ball and kill it every time like I did my freshman year.” Ryan said.
And that freshman year is well in the past.
Ryan has shown a great development, said Ryan, since joining the squad and she’s been getting a little help from teammate and doubles partner Ally Wooten.
They both have a 4-7 record playing doubles together so far this year, and even though the record might look dismal the partnership has done its job by teaching Ryan how to play as a team player and how to be better every day.
“Ally is a really good player and she has a lot of experience being a senior. She has gotten me through the double matches working together,” she said.
“We complement each other pretty much, when I am not playing well she catches me and when she is not playing well I try to win some points.”
Being in her second year at UT, playing with a partner in the doubles competition now and having a great athletic guide in Coach DuFaux has helped Ryan to be a better player and she is aware of that.
“Besides my consistency, I have been concentrating on playing directionally which is basically following through with your hips to the crack side,” said Ryan.
“Also, my serve has been going in a lot more often and I have sped it up a little bit.”
Bri, as she is known by her friends, also commented that next season she hopes to be more consistent hoping to have a record above .500, with victories than defeats.
She also said that in order to get better as a team, they all need to be more confident and come out stronger to every match.
“I believe we need to go out there more confident and win more double matches because double matches are the key.” Ryan finnaly said.
Ryan will continue her strong playing and continue leading the Spartans offensively as they take on Eckerd on Apr. 7, at 3 p.m., hoping that the women can finish the season strong and improve their record as a squad.
Arturo can be reached at juzcategui.gomez@spartans.ut.edu.