Women’s Tennis Players Compete Unattached at Boonsboro Fall UTR Tournament

Even though the Liberty women’s tennis team has not been able to compete this fall, a tournament in the Lynchburg area gave them an opportunity to showcase their skills Oct. 10-11.

Five athletes on the women’s tennis team competed unattached at the Boonsboro Fall UTR Event, located at the Boonsboro Country Club. Prior to this event, the last competition the team was able to play was March 10, against the University of North Texas.

“It felt strange. Even though we are practicing every day, it’s not the same as an actual competition. The pressure, nerves, and everything that goes into that,” freshman Esther Lovato said. “But it was still really fun to play.”

At the event four other athletes from different universities competed unattached, and throughout the tournament many of the Lady Flames found themselves competing against each other, as well as against former Liberty players.

“I was honestly nervous, I didn’t really know what was going to happen, because I haven’t played a real match in months,” freshman Tiffany Nguyen said. “I was nervous playing against my teammates as well. Being teammates, we play each other all the time, so we know each other very well, so we had to be ready for long matches.”

On the second day of the tournament, Nguyen and Lovato faced off against each other in an intense main draw final. Both of these athletes have very impressive resumes.

Nguyen is two-time Vietnam national champion in the professional circuit, and while at Liberty, she finished second on the team with 13 doubles victories along with her partner Micaela Ode Mitre. Coming out of high school, Lovato was ranked as high as No. 57 nationally, and led the Lady Flames with 18 singles victories in the 2019-2020 season.

“The match against Esther was a tough one. I’m not going to lie – I was nervous. Anyone who plays her is going to be nervous,” Nguyen said. “She gets the ball back every single time, no matter what you do with the ball, she’s always going to get it back.”

Nguyen went on to defeat Lovato 6-4, 6-3 in the main draw. With that victory and two other wins against former Liberty tennis player Anna Dollar and teammate Grace Hashiguchi, Nguyen posted a 3-0 mark at the tournament. As a result, Nguyen won the Boonsboro Fall UTR Event title.

“It felt really good, I hadn’t won a tournament for a year now. The last tournament I won was in Vietnam,” Nguyen said. “So, it felt really nice and now I know where I stand on the team.”

Even though this wasn’t a team competition, the experience gave the athletes an opportunity to display all the diligent work they’ve been putting in on the court.

“Being able to play in tournaments, you can see where you are at,” Lovato said. “Also, you can see where you need to improve and what you are lacking on, so you can go work on that in practice.”

Emmanuel Adamson is a Social Media Manager. Follow him on Twitter at @Eadamson12.