September 22 marked the end of the Texas A&M Texarkana women’s tennis teams fall season.  The team is now in the building stage coming off this season and is already preparing for the coming spring season. This year marks the first time the team has had a full complement of six players.  The team consists of: Lakyn Austin, Andrea Barcenas, Andrea Costillo, Kenzie Feist, Lydia Oviedo, Tatum Sikes and Jaelee Young, with new recruits said to be on their way for the coming 2024.

            Coach Joe Parish is the head of the women’s tennis team and when asked what the best matches he saw from this year were he said “the one I was most pleased with was a few weeks back… LSU-Shreveport that was a really, really good match. These were players in the ranking system in the UTR [universal tennis ranking] and we were ranked pretty similar and we were pretty close, and we came out on top.” These matches were held September 22, the last games played, in Shreveport, Louisiana.

             For the tennis team there are two seasons: spring and fall. Spring season is where the team works to boost their individual rankings and fall season is more of a training season to prepare for spring. During this time they go far and wide sparing against teams. The team can travel as far as New Orleans or Kansas City. But while at home both women’s and men’s teams practice at Texarkana College. The home games are also held their as well, but a new tennis court is going to be built at TAMUT in the coming future.

 TAMUT is not a sports school but to play on a college level is still a very tough task. And those who are already at a professional level do not usually go to university. And after college many of the women won’t play anymore. So to make up for this the tennis team wants to be able to succeed in life without tennis. It is used as a way to teach how to live with honor and dignity and to compete and work hard. Coach Parish said “We want them to win every match they can but we understand that this is just part of their life. And the main thing of course is their academics.”

Tennis is a very individualistic sport, much like boxing or wrestling. And just like those it takes a lot of self-drive and dedication to be in it. The women might be a team and have coaches but during and after a match it is a one on one affair. In this break time before the next season the TAMUT women are honing themselves, still hungry and ready for more. Ready to take on anyone in this upcoming year and ready to make it the best one yet.