BY CHRISTIAN RODRIGUEZ
Senior Staff Writer
Sacred Heart University’s men’s and women’s tennis teams have one month left to go in their seasons and are preparing for their conference matches.
Looking to contribute to the men’s team in the latter part of the season is freshman William Wibmer. Wibmer has earned Northeast Conference (NEC) freshman ‘Rookie of the Week,’ twice in two consecutive weeks this month.
“It is a huge honor and a joy to be recognized for the achievements from the hard work set day to day,” said Wibmer. “The two weekly awards made me really happy, but at the same time there’s still training to do to be even better.”
Wibmer is from Maldonado, Uruguay and has been gaining more confidence as the season has progressed. He has won both of his singles conference matches.
“My season has been going really well, it took me a bit to get adjusted to the surface and playing indoors, but luckily game by game I have gained more confidence and that earned me a nice set of wins,” said Wibmer.
The men’s team has an overall 4-10 record. They’re 1-1 in their conference matches.
“So far our season has been going well in my opinion. Definitely the highest level we played since I came to the school,” said junior Omar Abdo. “Maybe the results aren’t so great, but we are there in every match, which gives us a lot confidence for what really matters which is the NEC matches.”
The men’s team next match will be on March 30, when they visit Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey. After their match at Monmouth their next three out of their four final games are in conference matches.
“We are a very united team that has demonstrated this season that we can compete against teams better than us on paper. To finish this season strong, we have to keep training and have confidence in each teammate to be at 100 percent at the time of competition,” said Wibmer.
The next home match will be an in conference one vs Fairleigh Dickinson on Thursday, April 4 at the Tennis Club of Trumbull. They later wrap up on that week against Mount St. Mary’s University with the match taking place at Yale University.
On the other hand, the women’s team also has an overall record of 4-11, and are 0-1 in conference play. They began their conference matches this past Sunday, falling to Bryant. Junior Adrianne Alfonso picked up the lone victory for the Pioneers coming back after losing the first set, according to Sacred Heart Athletic Communications.
The next match for the women’s team will be on Wednesday March 27 when they visit Providence College. In April, the team will have five consecutive home matches including four conference ones.
The women’s tennis team will begin their home-stand against Fairleigh Dickinson University on April 4 at the tennis club of Trumbull. Their next four games after that will be played at Yale when they match up against Wagner, Saint Francis University, Mount St. Mary’s, and LIU Brooklyn.
