The tennis season has commenced, and the Ithaca College Bombers are looking to unjam the replay button for their seasons. Over the last two seasons, the women’s tennis team has finished 8-10 with a 3-5 record in conference play, with back-to-back first-round exits in the Liberty League Championship Tournament.
The team is shaking things up with its third head coach in three years. Head coach Mari Mitchell, the former assistant coach, is the stability that the team needs to keep up with the league’s intense competition.
Before becoming head coach, Mitchell was a four-year player on Cornell University’s women’s tennis team. She was then the assistant coach for Cornell from 1998-2000. Her last coaching job before coming to South Hill was at Ithaca High School from 2019-20, where she won ESPN Ithaca Coach of the Year. Last season, Mitchell was the assistant coach for the South Hill squad. Mitchell said she is switching up how the team runs and is implementing a new philosophy.
“ Conditioning is one of my big things,” Mitchell said. “I don’t want any matches to be lost due to conditioning.”
Mitchell said tennis is a game of chess that is played with racquets. When one player makes a move, the other has to be ready with a counter.
“I’m working even harder at keeping them accountable and keeping them in a system,” Mitchell said. “I want them to hit targets that we’re aiming at so they have a plan going into the match. I think that’s working and calm[ing] their nerves down. And as long as we have that action plan, they’re able to execute it.”
Coaching is not the only change that happened in the offseason. The NCAA and the Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced that the Division III scoring rules would change. Instead of going to nine points, teams would only play to seven. Also, each doubles match would no longer count for a point. Instead, three doubles matches will be played, and the team that wins two will get one point. Junior Sabrina Cheung said that the switch to Division I scoring isn’t a major change.
“It’s gonna be something we’re gonna have to adapt to,” Cheung said. “ Our singles matches count the most. And I think we all appreciate that because we’re all fighting individually for those singles matches.”
Throughout all of the constant changes, from coaching to the rulebook, one thing that has remained relatively the same is the roster. The South Hill squad retained eight of its ten players from the previous year, with three seniors, one junior and four sophomores.
Cheung is coming off her best season playing for the Bombers. She went 12-9 in singles play overall and 10-10 in doubles play. She was also named to the Liberty League All-Academic Team and was a College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Selection.
Cheung said she has been focused on her personal play. Whether that means focusing on the mental side or actual match play, she has been fine-tuning her game.
“ When I get all the nerves off of me, I tend to be a really confident player, and I almost want to instigate the person that I’m playing,” Cheung said. “It’s a very mental game. I want to get into their head and show them, I’m gonna win this match.”
Cheung is no stranger to the change in coaching because over her three seasons at the college she has played with three different coaches. One of the benefits of Mitchell’s coaching style and the small size of the team is that each player gets individualized training focusing on their strengths and what balls to hit.
“ We love the way that Mari coaches, and it’s a little bit different than my past two coaches,” Cheung said. “Chris [Hayes] was more like, just get out there, practice, play, do your own thing. And Tom [Rishcoff] was very structured. He would put together very structured practices where we do one thing after the other.”
Cheung said that adjusting to the lineup changes within the team has been tough, but that she believes her role will align with the team’s expectations. As the only junior on the team, she said she is playing in a new role as the third player in the lineup. Last season, she played as the fourth and fifth singles.
“ It’s definitely been a little more nerve-wracking because I haven’t played this high up,” Cheung said. “ I just kept fighting, kept trying to show my coaches that I could move up if I just played my game.”
Senior Taylor Crain is a three-time All-Liberty League First-Team player. Last season, she went 18-8 in singles and 14-10 in doubles.
Crain, a two-time captain, said that balancing the responsibility of being a veteran and a friend creates a sisterhood dynamic within the team.
“I’ve made a lot of lifelong friends here,” Crain said. “Coming to [the college], we’re all here because we love tennis. I have to be serious with the girls sometimes, but we still have fun. As captain, I know that everybody knows what’s expected of them at this point. It’s just nice being close, it’s nice having that consistency from last year.”
Crain praised the environment Mitchell has created within the team and said she emphasizes capitalizing on the experience over the results. It is more than strategy and skill. The connection between the players and the coach is the most important thing.
“ She really cares about every single one of us on a personal level,” Crain said. “She cares about our well-being and our emotions. She cares about how we’re having fun and enjoying [ourselves]. And every match she says to me, ‘Go compete, go have fun, because that’s what makes the match.’”
Crain said Mitchell takes time on and off the court to make sure the team is comfortable and in the best position to compete.
“She acts as that mother figure, especially since she has three kids,” Crain said. “You can tell that she really cares about you. She does it because she loves us, not because it’s a job.”
The team started the season with a loss against Skidmore College 6-1 Feb. 9 and bounced back with a 7-0 win against Drew University on Feb. 15. Crain said the team did not take the first loss too harshly.
“ We just played one of the best teams in our league,” Cheung said. “We all put up a fight, We left it out there and now we’re going to move on to the next I know we’re going to keep fighting for every match.”
The Bombers have their work cut out for them as the season gets into full swing. It’s a team of veterans looking to break the streak of first-round exits.
Crain said the team’s experience against the strong schedule, such as Division I Binghamton University, adds extra confidence to the team’s performance.
“ It doesn’t matter what level,” Crain said. “As long as we go out thinking we have a chance against every match, I think anything’s possible.”
