Story by Adam Redfern
Staff writer
aredfern@murraystate.edu
For the first time in Head Coach Jorge Caetano’s coaching tenure, Murray State’s women’s tennis team was picked to finish first in the OVC, alongside Austin Peay.
After a season where the Racers finished 14-8 overall and 8-1 in the conference, Murray State will be seeking to build on last year by winning its first OVC title since 2015.
That goal is promising, as Murray State returns three players who were selected to the All-OVC team last year. Junior Claire Chang was named to the All-OVC first team, while sophomores Stasya Sharapova and Aarja Chakraborty were named to the All-OVC second team.
Caetano expressed excitement with entering his fifth season as the skipper of the program.
“I love working with them,” Caetano said. “I love this; I love what I do. We have good facilities and good support here. Everyone I brought here really loves it, and we all have really good relationships.”
It’s easy to love a winning program. Last year this Racers only lost one of it’s conference games and that loss came against the previous OVC champions in a close 3-4 fashion. The team was anchored by their No. 4 singles player, senior Amina Hadzic. Hadzic went on a tear last spring winning 15-straight matches at one point.
Caetano has been prepping his team to compete for the OVC championship this year with some hard training.
“The first week they ran over 800 doubles lines, which is just over eight kilometers or five miles,” Caetano said. “They did a really good job with that. This means a lot, we have a good team this year I think we can fight for the conference title. The preseason poles put us first alongside Austin Peay.”
As well as being picked to finish first in the OVC, the Racers have three girls picked to finish within the Top-10 overall players. Chang was picked second, Sharapova ninth and Chakraborty was picked 10th.
Caetano thinks the experience his team received last year will translate well into this year.
“The players have more confidence this year,” Caetano said. “We have the talent, but having a young team for so long was tough. At one point we had one senior and seven sophomores and freshman. Being an upperclassmen makes such a big difference because you have been in those situations before.”
The Racers will open their spring season on Sunday, Feb. 3, against Cumberland University at the Kenlake Tennis Center in Hardin, Kentucky.