Samford Women’s Tennis team is on a five-match winning streak with wins over Troy, Jacksonville State, Appalachian State, UNC Greensboro and Mercer. The Bulldogs are standing at 9-5 overall as of March 22.
In their matchup against Mercer, the women won all six of their singles matchups in two sets. Led by their number one Rouxanne “Roxy” Janse Van Rensburg, the rest of the players, Samantha Nanere, Alexis Lopez, Ally Hayduk, Sofia Zaprianov and Lindsay Song all contributed to bringing home a win for the Bulldogs.
Sophomore Olivia Jablonski shared high praise about her team.
“Roxy is killing it as always and all three of our doubles teams have been playing really well,” she said.“We are currently in the conference season so this is when the pressure starts to hit but we’re doing well and currently have a 2-0 record against the other teams in our conference.”
The Bulldogs are led by their veteran coach of 13 years David Vest. Vest has accumulated a number of prestigious coaching accolades, including multiple SoCon Coach of the Year awards, with the most recent being in the 2018 season, as well as the 2014 Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s (ITA) Southern Region Coach of the Year award.
In his time with the team, he has led the Bulldogs to two Southern Conference championship titles as well as two appearances in the NCAA tournament.
Samford women’s tennis currently shares a seat at the top spot in conference standings with Chattanooga and ETSU. All three teams currently have perfect conference records. The Southern Conference tournament will be held April 21-23 in Chattanooga where Samford hopes to claim another title.
“Our attitudes overall have been very focused and determined which has led to our performance levels being really high recently,” Jablonski said. “We are determined to make the conference finals and have a shot at going to the NCAAs this year.”
In addition to their hard work and dedication on the court, the tennis team also has a bond that goes beyond their athletic abilities. Jablonski described her experience with the girls on the team.
“The team dynamic is amazing,” she said.. “All of the girls get along so well and we hang out on and off the court every day. We support each other no matter what and always have each other’s backs.”
Samford Women’s next tennis match will be against Western Carolina on Friday, April 1. In Birmingham, Alabama. The team will then travel to Johnson City, Tennessee, for a road match against ETSU.
