Looking to move past the low points of the season, the UT tennis team has started getting ready for next season.
The team has selected a new captain for next year, and the responsibility fell on the hands of Megan Mancini.
Mancini, a sophomore from Salt Lake City, Utah received the news with arms wide open.
“I have a positive attitude and hopefully the girls will be happy with me as team captain.” Mancini said.
The communications major explained that even though she had another school picked out in Southern California before committing to UT, she visited Tampa before her high school graduation and realized that this was the place for her.
Mancini was friends with teammate Emily Kennedy from her home town.
“The Coach found out that I played Tennis so he arranged for me to practice with the team,” Mancini said. “By the end of the day, [he] offered me a spot on the squad.”
Mancini also talked about the competition in Florida being much harder than back home, which she said was her biggest challenge.
Even though she has played year-round before, she has found that tough competition in Florida which has made her a better tennis player since joining the squad.
Evaluating her two seasons as a Spartan tennis player, Mancini believes that even though she and the team had a better-looking record last season, this year’s team is much better and she has matured a lot .
“We’re not a bad team at all. Everyone works hard but we’re not quite winning,” said Mancini. “All the girls are great this year and despite [our] record, I am having a lot of fun.”
Mancini talked about the parts of her game that she needs to work on for the future.
“I will be down 5-1 [in a set] and I’ll get it to 5-4 being totally in the zone but then I get nervous, the result is not always what I expect,” Mancini said. “Tennis is such a mental game and I need to work on that aspect of [it].”
She also emphasized that her teammates should go into the matches with a lot more confidence than they do, given the fact that they have played most of those rival teams before. Confidence is the key to winning matches, she believes.
“When you are a young player, especially a freshman, you might go into the matches nervous playing against teams that are ranked well,” said Mancini. “I just want the girls to realize that [our rivals] are good, but we’re all good as well.”
Mancini explained that one of the things she will work on as team captain is reaffirming the team’s confidence by giving her full support to them.
Mancini knows she has grown a lot from last season, both as a tennis player and as a person.
Since she’s playing better than she did last season, she hopes to lead the Spartans to a better record.
Arturo can be reached at juzcategui.gomez@ut.edu.