It’s 10:45 a.m., and you’re scrambling for a parking spot before your 11 a.m. class. All the lots seem to be full, so where do you go? You circle campus for what seems like an hour until you end up in a tucked-away corner of West campus, your saving grace: the tennis courts.
While most students on campus may seldom visit this area, tennis players Eleni Liakonis and Meredith Taylor have called these courts home.
The Samford Women’s Tennis team is currently 9-9 overall as they continue their season this spring.
Liakonis is a freshman from Knoxville, Tenn. who is currently 10-4 overall in her singles matches.
Her doubles partner, Taylor, is a junior at Samford who transferred as a sophomore from UNC Wilmington, is currently 6-7 overall in singles.
The girls’ chemistry as doubles partners is critical.
“There’s never a time where I feel like she stresses me out or there’s never a time when I think our energy is off,” said Taylor. “We’re always very consistent and I think that affects our playing really well and we just know each other’s game.”
When it comes to the season as a whole, the team takes it match by match.
“Each match is an experience, and we can learn from each match,” said Liakonis. “As each match has passed, we’ve learned something different.”
While the team was consistent, the girls noted that confidence is where they need the most work.
“We all have the talent, it just comes down to believing in ourselves and believing in each other and just knowing that we are able to perform,” said Liakonis.
When the team believes in themselves, results follow.
“When each one of us is confident, it helps keep the whole team up and help our energy overall so that’s something that’s really important, I think, in every match going forward,” said Taylor.
The team is coming off a match with their toughest competitor, ETSU, and are eager to face them again later in the SoCon tournament.
“Our overall score wasn’t close but the scores within the matches were close so even though we lost it, in a way it gave us a certain type of confidence because we know we can compete with the best,” said Liakonis.
The team has four more competitors to face before the start of the SoCon tournament. They plan to use those matches to propel them going into the tournament.
“Hopefully we’re able to be seeded as high as we can to put ourselves in a good first match in the conference tournament,” said Taylor.
The tennis team will play their next match on Thursday, April 10, where the Bulldogs will face Mercer on the road.
*This article was written before two other matches were played, which affects the stats listed in this article.
Sports Editor
