By Peter Sowards

SENIOR REPORTER

[email protected]

A look at the results from the 2012-13 EWU women’s tennis season might lead one to believe that it has been a disappointing year, given the team’s 6-13 overall record.

For women’s interim head coach Dustin Hinson, however, there is reason for optimism. “It’d be one thing if I feel like they weren’t giving their effort all the time, or if we had attitude problems or something like that,” Hinson said. “They’ve been giving it their all the whole time, and that’s all I can ask for as a coach: working hard and giving their best.”

The Eagles have already surpassed their win total of four from last year, with three matches remaining. Still having a chance to make the postseason tournament, Hinson enjoys the melodrama that a close finish brings. “If we can just play the way we’ve been playing, I think we’ll have a great chance against Montana State and Portland State,” he said. “And then we’ll just see what happens as far as making [the] conference [tournament]. I don’t know if that’ll quite be good enough. We might have to have a couple things go our way as far as other teams, but we’ll do what we can to get ourselves there.

“It’s exciting to have it come down to a couple matches.”

After dropping its match 6-1 versus Montana on April 2, the team has 10 days off to regroup before taking on the Montana State on April 12. Sophomore Chrissy Uriarte appreciates the time off after the rigors of tightly-bunched matches. “I feel like my body’s going to fall apart, so it’s nice to have a good break,” she said.

Hinson made the decision to bring up Uriarte to No. 1 doubles on March 10, pairing her with fellow sophomore and No. 1 singles player Moira Hedberg. Uriarte and Hedberg have rewarded Hinson’s decision with wins in four of their last six matches. “I knew they’d be a strong team, and we really wanted to be strong at No. 1 doubles,” Hinson said. “They’ve been great. They’ve been getting a lot of wins. It’s been pretty seamless for sure. We practice a lot of different lineups during practice to kind of see what might work, and that’s definitely our strongest No. 1 [pairing].”

The duo played together for the majority of the 2011-12 season and feel they work well together.
“As a partner I think we level each other out because I’m more calm, and she gets really pumped up,” Uriarte said. “It’s a good balance because she pumps me up too.”

“We balance each other out,” Hedberg said. “It’s a good mix because we don’t get each other too rattled when we play. If she seems too mellow, I’ll try to fire her up, and if I’m too fired up, she’ll mellow me out. We really play well together.”

Hinson views Hedberg as a pleasure to coach because of her intensity and will to win. “She’s got amazing abilities, but she’s one of those [players] that will just fight until the very end,” he said. “That’s what I like about her on the court: She just knows what she has to do, goes out there and she just fights.”

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