The Midwestern State women’s tennis team will open the 2024 season with a scrimmage against the Cowley College Tigers on Friday, Feb. 8. These scrimmages will start head coach Scott Linn’s 14th season.

With most players returning, the team will strive to  compete in the NCAA Tournament. Micaela McSpadden, psychology junior, said she looks forward to attending nationals and bettering herself as a player.

“Going to nationals is a team goal that we all want to go and accomplish. Team-wise that is always the end goal for us, and stacking matches puts us in a position to go,” McSpadden said.

The team is coming off a second place conference finish and dedicates itself to improvement.

“I try to have more input goals than output goals. So meaning that my goals for myself are things that are in my realm of control. I believe that if you have an input, the output will take care of itself,” McSpadden said. 

Coming from the tournaments, the team played in the fall, but some adjustments were needed before the spring season.

“The fall went really well. We had a lot of good results over the course of the fall and it was really exciting to see a lot of the players return head and shoulders better than last spring, and we all came back hungry, our results showed that,” McSpadden said, continuing, “There were areas of our games that we all needed to target. I would say doubles is an area across the board that we needed to get more confident and comfortable playing. However, I think we are making great strides in doubles. I think we are getting better strategically in how we present ourselves on the court.” 

The team has shown dedication to bettering itself, whether through extra practice on players’ own time or team-mandated practices. 

“We have multiple players on both teams that put in extra work. They will get there before practice to train. They will stay after practice to train. They will come in on their days off. It’s not a matter of whether or not they will put the work in. It’s a matter of whether or not they believe in the work they are putting in,” Linn said.

According to Linn, the returning players are better and the new players are good.

“I know we have more depth this year than we had, so the options are greater. Which doesn’t always mean better, but if thought out correctly could mean better,” Linn said.