Women's tennis, Mitrea build wins, eye rankings

Coming off a home-court victory against No. 36 SMU, the women's tennis team looks to keep up their winning streak and beat ranked opponents.

"I was impressed by our energy and effort and we didn't let up," said Head Coach Mark Ardizzone. "One of our main goals is to beat ranked teams and the other is to win every match at home, and we got to accomplish both of those things."

Even with more away than home matches, Ardizzone said that the team is playing better at home this year than previous seasons.

"It used to be that we were a better team on the road…we seemed to be distracted at home," said Ardizzone. "We play less matches at home than any other team in the country probably, so they're just excited to play at home."

Ardizzone admitted that after the victory he expects to see DePaul "in the rankings."

"You've got to be about a top 55 [ranked] team to have any shot of tournament play," Ardizzone said.

The win over SMU provided confidence for the team as they traveled to play both Wisconsin and No. 37 N.C. State this past weekend.

"After this last win, we have a lot of confidence and we hope to keep it up the rest of the season," said freshmen Rebeca Mitrea.

Despite a 10 singles match winning streak, Mitrea said she doesn't really think about those numbers.

"I just think about winning every match, but if I happen to lose it's just important that the team wins," said Mitrea. "There's always some pressure, it's how you get over it and play in the moment."

Last week Mitrea was named the Big East Women's Tennis Player of the Week, which she admitted was a "nice surprise."

"I've never been more proud of a kid who's completely changed in a short amount of time," said Ardizzone. "She's completely changed as a player, competitor and teammate and I've just been so impressed.

Preparing for the weekend matches, the team worked to maintain energy and win every possible point.

"They're both extremely competitive and feisty teams," said Ardizzone. "We've really been working on trying to keep our energy where it needs to be...and when we get an easy ball we need to win those points, we nee to finish."

Going into the matches, Wisconsin carried a 4-0 record, including a 12-0 record in doubles play. The Demons are especially looking to improve their doubles play.

"We've been a little bit of slow starters [in doubles], so we're trying to figure out why that is and what we're doing," said Ardizzone. "We seem to start a little slow and I think it's because we're a little tentative and so we worked this week on being a little more aggressive right at the beginning of matches."

Based on their doubles performance this weekend, Ardizzone suggested the option of changing doubles pairings.

"If we struggle again in doubles, then we're going to throw some wrinkles in and play different players with different people and see what happens," said Ardizzone.

Mitrea, with a 15-2 singles record, said she enjoys playing both singles and doubles, while recognizing that doubles can be more challenging.

"In singles it is easier to come back if you lose a game, but in doubles it is way more challenging and all about momentum," Mitrea said.

The Demons look to maintain their win-streak over their next eight matches when they play three to four ranked teams.

"If we don't beat someone, we're probably going to have to try to recover and beat someone the next day," said Ardizzone. "It's in our hands, so if we beat the teams we'll give ourselves that opportunity to get some post-season play."

The Blue Demons continue season play with matches at Western Michigan and Indiana Feb. 17 and Feb. 19.