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Women's Tennis
Coach's Notes
October 24, 2008 URI Finishes the Fall Campaign Undefeated! In the past week URI Women's Tennis won two very different matches ending our Fall season with a perfect 6-0 record. First we handled Monmouth University from New Jersey winning 7-0. We had too much firepower for them and won all matches relatively easily with the toughest foe being the weather which produced 20 MPH winds coupled with temperatures in the 40s. Everyone was happy to get inside after that one. Next up was our biggest test of the Fall season. We headed to Boston to play Wellesley College which is a classy DIII powerhouse. They recently were narrowly edged 5-4 by the #1 DIII team in the country so they will be ranked in the top 5 or better. I expected a true test of two very even teams which is exactly what we received. Unfortunately it rained causing the match to be moved indoors. Their facility turns out to be lightning fast which changes everything. They also had the advantage of being more familiar with the surface than we were. The ladies found it very difficult to get their timing on their groundstrokes. We immediately were in a hole during doubles as returning serve was very tough. After going down an early break at both #2 (Pam Emery and Amanda Barletta) and #3 doubles (Captains Grace Hedstrom and Valerie Chacon) we couldn't break back losing both matches 8-6. Freshmen twins, Kirsten and Tristany Leikem stayed on serve right to 7-6 at which point they broke their hard serving opponents for the only time in the match to win 8-6. Using DIII scoring we were down 2-1 after doubles. The singles got off to an inauspicious start as both Kirsten and Tristany at #1 and #2 couldn't find their timing indoors and quickly dropped their matches to strong players putting us in a 4-1 hole. This meant we would have to win all four remaining matches from #3 to #6. To make matters worse, Pam Emery and Christen Cadigan at #3 and #4 both lost the first set of their matches as the Wellesley ladies were pounding winners from all over the court. It looked like we might very well get trounced but it is a testament to the character of this team that we stayed focused and slowly worked our way back into the matches. After over an hour on court it was almost as if someone turned a switch and suddenly we were able to hit the ball cleanly, take it earlier and start to push them around the court which was exactly what they had done to us. Valerie Chacon at #5 started things by riding her attacking volleys to win two close sets 6-4 6-3 to get us on the board. Both Pam and Christen started running their opponents ragged in taking the second sets while Amanda Barletta (who loves fast courts) at #6 overpowered her counterpart 6-1 6-0. We were now down 4-3 with just the #3 and #4 matches entering their third sets. Surprisingly neither third set was close as the Wellesley ladies were rattled and trying to hit winners too early in the point causing them to make errors. Pam and Christen never faltered applying consistent pressure right to the end winning their third sets 6-1 and 6-2 respectively. We had come back by winning the last four matches to overtake Wellesley 5-4. Grace Hedstrom and Brooke Hoover at #7 and #8 also won two solid exhibition matches. It was also a total team effort as all eight URI players won matches and no one won both their singles and doubles. It shows again that we have a very deep and talented team with players who can win at all positions in the lineup. A great comeback like this can really pay dividends later in the season. If the momentum of a match does not start our way we will continue to fight rather than throw in the towel. With tennis as many sports the mental aspect is crucial and this team definitely believes in themselves. October 14, 2008 Bringing Home the Pumpkin! URI Wins New England Championships! In the past fortnight we have been very busy. We won two dual matches bringing our record to 4-0 for the year while also winning the New England Championships for the third consecutive year. We started with a dominating 7-0 win over state rival, Providence College. This was followed up with a very competitive 5-2 victory over a strong Hofstra team. The doubles point was tight with the Leikem twins winning at #1 and Senior captains, Valerie Chacon and Grace Hedstrom won 9-8 at #3. We then recorded wins at #2,3,5 and 6 by Pam Emery, Tristany Leikem, Amanda Barletta and Valerie Chacon to take the match. Next up was the New Englands where we were dominant. We won all six singles flights finishing 18-0 in singles. We also swept 2 of the 3 doubles flights. Our three Freshmen Pam Emery, Tristany Leikem and Kirsten Leikem led the way winning the #1, #2 and #3 singles flights. Christen Cadigan regained her form and crushed all opponents in the #4 flight while Amanda Barletta and Brooke Hoover rolled in flights #5 and #6. Pam Emery had a tough final day as she gutted out a 2 ½ hour battle (including arm cramps) against a steady Fairfield player in singles only to go on soon thereafter to win both the semifinals and finals of the #2 doubles flight with Amanda Barletta. The Leikem twins also won three Sunday matches including the #1 doubles flight. See below for full results. The team is playing very well as we are undefeated on the season and have produced some fine tournament results. I'm optimistic for the rest of the year particularly as we work more on our doubles with the goal of becoming more aggressive and active at the net. Our next match is Sunday 10/19 at 11AM. Come out and support the Rams! Coach Sandy Wood September 22, 2008 URI women's tennis team had an excellent three days in the very competitive Quinnipiac Invitational. This tournament featured teams from Army, UConn, Seton Hall, University of Maryland Baltimore, Quinnipiac, Fairfield and URI. The goal was to play lots of tennis and get all eight players into multiple singles and doubles matches. With three days of sunshine, the result was just what we are looking for. All the players were very competitive so there were no easy matches. I was pleased that when the dust settled we were among the leaders in all four divisions. It shows we've had a very productive start to the season and that the girls are improving and playing well. We ended with an overall record of 34-15 (which compares to a 20-26 record last season.) All 8 members of the team at a minimum had both a singles and doubles win. The highlights were numerous and included: - Freshman Tristany Leikem winning the B Draw. (The B draw is comprised of the #3 and 4 singles players from each school.) - Freshman Pam Emery reaching the semifinals of the A draw and upsetting the #1 seed from UMBC in a two hour plus marathon. - Freshman Kirsten Leikem coming back to win the A flight back draw after dropping a tough 3 setter to the UConn #1 player. - Sophomore Christen Cadigan winning the B flight back draw by sweeping three matches. - Junior Amanda Barletta ended up co-champ of the C flight back draw (the #5-6 players). - Seniors Valerie Chacon and Grace Hedstrom each reached the semifinals of the C and D flights, respectively. - Finally, we had excellent results in doubles with Kirsten and Tristany Leikem reaching the finals of the A draw with excellent wins over Seton Hall, UConn and UMBC. Pam Emery and Amanda Barletta also reached the finals of the B draw.
Combined singles and doubles records for the three-day event were: Overall, it was an outstanding event although exhausting. (For example on Saturday we started at 8AM and finished under the lights at 10PM.) Tournaments always point out some areas to work on but mostly we just need to fine tune. We are off again this coming weekend to the Army Invitational at West Point where we'll compete in a big 32 team tournament. If anyone is in the area, please come up and see some great tennis. - Coach Sandy Wood August 31, 2008 It's that time of year when the summer comes to a close and the tennis team comes back to campus. This year promises to be one of the most exciting with an excellent recruiting class, lots of returning experience and plenty of challenges ahead. I have very high hopes for this year's squad as we have the potential to be the best team of my five year tenure which is no small feat as we have become stronger each year. In addition we will play our toughest schedule to date with something like 5 tournaments and 20 matches against quality opponents by the time we finish at the end of April. Last season we had a very strong campaign going 16-8, winning the New Englands and placing 7th out of 14 in the very competitive Atlantic 10 Conference. We hope to exceed that mark this year. We will be led by excellent proven upper classmen with 5 letter winners back out of last years top 7. The Seniors are Grace Hedstrom from Minnesota and Valerie Chacon from Houston, TX. They have won nearly 175 singles and doubles matches for URI over the past three years as strong players and leaders. Last year they played mostly in the #2-4 positions for the Rams. Grace uses her serve and big forehand to overpower her opponents while Val is a true all court player mixing up power, touch, slice and topspin. She also has an outstanding volley and overhead making her a dangerous doubles player. Our lone Junior is Amanda Barletta, New Providence, NJ who has been an incredibly reliable performer for the last two years as a rock mostly at the #4-5 slots compiling an amazing 91 singles and doubles wins. She hits a flatter ball than her opponents are used to and loves to surprise them with winners up the line when they expect the crosscourt. We return two key Sophomores as well in Christen Cadigan from Medfield, MA and Brooke Hoover from Durham, NC. Christen rose through the ranks to the #2 spot where she won some very tough matches with a stellar 26-10 singles record. She drives a heavy ball cross court with pace and topspin off both sides until openings present themselves for her to finish the point. She is very reliable under pressure and came through when needed. Brooke who is solid from the baseline played primarily in the #6-7 range and did well with her consistent game when called upon. Her highlight was winning the #5 flight of the New England tournament. In addition, we have three excellent freshmen who will all be vying for spots in the lineup. Pam Emery, from North Providence has dominated the Rhode Island tennis scene throughout her high school years winning three state titles and I'm happy that we could retain her in state. She has also consistently been ranked in the top 20 of New England. Joining her will be twins Tristany and Kirsten Leikem from Tucson, Arizona. They are ranked in the top 5 in the Southwest (Arizona and New Mexico) and come with top 200 National rankings as well. We will be deep and talented without much gradation between #1 and #8. The challenge will be to find playing time and to construct a singles and doubles lineup from this talented and hungry group. The Fall portion of the season is when we work on grooving strokes, bonding as a team, learning our system involving structured patterns of play, identifying specific areas to work on and starting to make individual adjustments. At the same time we will play four tournaments and eight matches so it will be a busy September and October. Come out during the beautiful Fall weather (schedule on the website) and watch this team play some very high level and entertaining tennis!! Call anytime to talk tennis! Sandy Wood July 17, 2008 I hope you are all having a great summer. In Rhode Island the weather has been mostly hot and sunny. It's been a good time for tennis, sailing, fishing and even an occasional foray out to the links. The team is working hard playing a lot and working on their fitness. Our strength coach provided the ladies with a comprehensive plan for the summer to prepare them for the season. We have been very fortunate to have few injuries over the four years that I've been coaching and I suspect that is a result of our strength training, a reasonable amount of play and some luck. I will be writing a season preview email soon but for now suffice it to say that with 5 experienced returnees and 3 strong freshmen arriving at the end of August, this will be one of the strongest teams in URI history. I'm still setting up a schedule that will be challenging and also reasonable in terms of travel so that the ladies will have time to excel in academics as well as tennis. It takes a lot of advance planning on their part but this group does an excellent job of balancing high level Division 1 Tennis with strong academics. In fact, I am proud to say that for the second consecutive semester Women's Tennis leads the 22 URI sports with the highest GPA while establishing ourselves as one of the top Eastern teams and finishing in the top half of the very tough Atlantic 10 conference. We are a balanced team with excellence in many areas. This week, I had the rare privilege of playing tennis with the Legends on the grass courts at the Newport Hall of Fame. It was a morning of playing with greats such as Stan Smith, Todd Martin (he can still bring it!), Martina Hingis (my favorite women's player), Tom Gullickson (nasty lefty serve), Richie Renenberg and Jonathan Stark (I think they won Wimbledon in doubles), Corina Mariou (Wimbledon doubles champ) and more. Their skills were amazing. I particularly noticed how well they all volleyed. Essentially you rotate through different courts for 3 hours getting to play and chat it up with all of them. It was a great experience. I did make one mistake though. At one point, I was playing with Stan Smith against Todd Martin and his partner. I was feeling pretty good to be back on grass and consequently with Stan serving to the ad court I was looking to volley when possible. Todd hit a solid shot up the middle which I stepped in front of and cut off through the gap. I have a tendency when I get a little nervous to sort of giggle which is what I did after basically hitting the perfect untouchable poach off TODD MARTIN. Well two points later when he received serve again, he decided to teach me a lesson and ripped his two handed BH up the line right at me. I was keyed up and somehow made a reflex volley right through the gap again at which time I nervously giggled again. Todd (who is a great guy) somewhat jokingly said "Sandy, I don't mind if you hit winners against me but you have to stop laughing after each one." At that point, Stan stirred the pot by saying "Hey Todd, Sandy just told me he thinks you're a Joke!" (Which I obviously did not say.) Todd now pretends to be mad. On the next point with Stan serves to Todd's partner while Todd and I are at net. Stan purposely takes the first volley and sets it up for Todd to hit an easy overhead from inside the service line. Todd basically pounds it at about 150 mph about 4 feet to the side of me while I'm at net. He then asks "Do you think that's Funny too!" I'm giggling uncontrollably by this time. As you can tell, it was a wonderful opportunity to play with some of the greatest players in history who all turned out to be really fun and super nice people. I hope you are all playing a lot and that you come out and watch our matches this fall. Feel free to contact me any time to talk tennis. Sincerely,
Sandy Wood
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