Simpson College’s men’s and women’s tennis teams took on the Grand View University Vikings in their home openers Monday, Sept. 8.
The women’s team picked up its first win of the season, highlighted by juniors Grace Peck and Coilee Hynek. Hynek’s doubles partner, senior Savana Walls, also assisted. The team also added three match wins by default.
The Vikings came fighting back late in the game during Hynek and Walls’s doubles match. Fortunately, the pair ultimately closed out the 6-3 win, giving the Storm their first match win of the day and season.
Walls said her chemistry on the court with Hynek is what helped them pull out this early-season win.
“I think we communicate well, we’ve been playing together for like a year now so it went pretty smoothly,” Walls said. “It got close towards the end, but we closed it out.”
Peck’s match win was much closer, as she was able to earn the win in the tiebreaker. After winning set one, 6-4, Grand View’s Sofia Ordinteva fought back to tie it 3-6. Peck won the tiebreaking set 7-5.
Head coach Nicole Berger is proud of how her team has fought this season, especially when it comes to these tiebreaking sets.
“I feel like our first match didn’t really reflect it in the scores,” Berger said. “The match was much closer than the scores reflected, but today, they fought. That’s how they got to the tiebreakers.”
Berger said this match was also a big step-up from the Sept. 6 loss to Central.
The men’s team kicked off their fall season with a 6-1 loss to the Vikings. While they fell short on the scorecard, there were many bright spots to look back on.
First-year Henry Godar picked up his first two collegiate varsity wins after winning both his singles and doubles matches with sophomore Darek Kayser.
Though, Godar enjoys tennis through adversity as well.
“It’s just such a fun sport to play, win or lose,” Godar said. “It’s fun to go out there because the games are long. So even if you don’t win a game, you always have a point or two that you can look back on.”
Head men’s coach Matt Price said despite the team being young, they exceeded his expectations in their opening match.
“We have a young team; five out of our six varsity players are freshmen and sophomores,” he said. “We knew Grand View was going to be really good. We’re ahead of where I thought we would be.”
The women’s team looks to carry their momentum into their home match against Quincy on Sept. 17. The men play at home Sunday, Sept. 14, with their sights set on picking up the first win of the fall season.
