Hawkeye Fan Shop — A Black & Gold Store | 24 Hawkeyes to Watch 2016-17 | Hawk Talk Monthly — February
IOWA CITY, Iowa — The University of Iowa women’s tennis team is off to its best start since 2008. The Hawkeyes currently sit at 7-0 and look to tie the 2008 start with a victory this weekend against UT Arlington. The best start in Iowa women’s tennis history came in 1990 when the Hawkeyes started 12-0.
“We are going to fight and be confident in ourselves this weekend,” said UI junior Zoe Douglas. “We are confident in our 7-0 record that we have right now, and we are going to go out there and try do everything that we can to make it 8-0.”
As a team the Hawkeyes have posted a 36-4 singles mark and 13-4 doubles record. They credit their recent to success to the team buying-in and coming together.
“I definitely feel like this year we are close as a team,” said junior Anastasia Reimchen. “Everyone is on board and we are just so motivated to do well. After last season our primary goal was to be 100 percent better and work hard and grow as a team together.”
Reimchen has been a key factor to the Hawkeyes 7-0 start. The junior is off to a career-best 6-0 start in singles play.
“Anastasia is a really steady presence and she is great for the team,” said UI head coach Sasha Schmid. “She’s always smiling and nodding her head at me in team meetings, and she’s really engaged and committed to what we are doing.”
“I’ve really been focusing on everything that we have been working on in practice with the coaches,” said Reimchen. “Just implementing that into my matches, and believing in myself have been the key factors for me.”
The Hawkeyes are eager to get to Arlington and take on the Mavericks to learn more about themselves while also preparing for Big Ten Conference play. Their first Big Ten match against Indiana is only three matches away.
“UTA is a great team and I have a lot of respect for them,” said Schmid. “They were a ranked team at the end of last year and I think they will be the best test that we face up to this point. I just want to see our team against a good team and see exactly where we are with a couple weeks to go before conference play starts.”
Although the Hawkeyes are enjoying an undefeated record and want to move to 8-0 this weekend, they are focusing on the season as a whole, and playing for later in the season.
“We’ve had great moments of success and that’s great, I’m happy for them because learning to win is important,” said Schmid. “More importantly than getting to 8-0, I just want to get to UTA and really know where we are. At the end of the day we want to play for April and May and postseason play.”
The Hawkeyes face UT Arlington on Sunday at 11 a.m. (CT) in Arlington, Texas.
