From the looks of it, the Hawkeye Tennis & Recreation Complex might be home to something special.
The Iowa women’s tennis team, eager for the start of the season, will not have to wait much longer.
The Hawkeyes have spent countless hours together practicing and preparing for the beginning of what it hopes to be an improved season.
“First of all, we’re really excited, and the team looks really good,” Iowa assistant coach Mira Radu said. “We’ve put in a lot of work these first few weeks. We’re excited to go to Minnesota.”
The Hawkeyes will open up their season on Sept. 25 at the Minnesota Golden Gopher Invitational in Minneapolis.
After posting a 7-15 overall record, while going 2-9 in conference play, the Hawkeyes are hoping to improve upon last season’s record with the help of No. 1 and last season’s Big Ten Freshman of the Year Sonja Molnar.
“I think she’s ready,” Iowa head coach Daryl Greenan said. “She’s definitely ready to compete with any of the best players in the country.”
Recently, Molnar qualified for the 2009 Riviera Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-American Championships. The tournament is one of three major qualifying tournaments, with the other two being the association’s National Collegiate Indoor Championships, and the NCAA Tournament at the end of the season.
Molnar will be the first player since ex-Hawkeye Meg Racette (2006) and Toni Neykova (2002) to qualify for the tournament.
“It’s a huge honor,” Greenan said. “It would really help her to pick up a few wins out there. If she qualifies for the main draw, which she’s certainly capable of, that would really give her some momentum going into the rest of the year.”
Molnar, who has been training extensively for the upcoming season, said she was happy to see her hard work starting to pay off.
“It feels good,” she said. “That’s the tournament I’ve been wanting to play. Hopefully, I play well and get good competition.”
After going 18-4 in the No. 1 spot in the spring, she has seen her share of great competition and big matches. With her first major tournament only weeks away, she remains relaxed.
“There’s not on any pressure on me from anything else, the only pressure is what I put on myself,” Molnar said. “I don’t normally get nervous before matches, so that’s a good thing. Hopefully, I’ll go in there feeling good and play well.”
She won’t be the only tennis player with experience. The 2009-10 team features a slew of upperclassmen, with no freshmen. With the exception of Baylor University transfer Zuzana Chmelarova, Iowa has almost the exact same team as last season.
Acquainted with each other long enough, this team has gotten a chance to bond. Not many teams can say they are as good of a team as they are friends, but the 2009-10 women’s tennis team is one of them.
“I think everyone is working hard on being successful this year. We’ve just banded together as a team,” said junior Alexis Dorr, who also works for the DI. “We’ve had really hard workouts, and we’ve just been encouraging each other to get a lot better and stronger. Everybody’s just got a lot closer.”
This weekend, when the Hawkeyes travel to Minneapolis, they find out what the rest of college tennis has to offer.
“It’s really a test of not only our team, but what the other teams we’re going to see later on in the season are going to look like this year,” Radu said. “We’re ready to see them, and we’re ready to compete.”