Going into his 15th season as head coach of Wichita State’s women’s tennis team, Colin Foster said the team is “farther along than we normally are at this point of the preseason.”

Foster said the group is bought in, hungry and excited to get the season underway.

“We’ve made significant progress and improvements across the board,” Foster said. “… Normally … certain players are going to kind of make a push results-wise in their games and confidence-wise. But we feel like any of the eight players (on the roster) can be … that player that continues to make those pushes because they all made significant improvements in the fall.”

Last year, the Shockers finished with a 13-10 record, the team’s best in five years. Here’s what Foster expects from WSU’s improving women’s tennis team this season:

Separation is in the preparation

Foster called this offseason “unique.” During winter break, most players return home to focus on their game individually and relax. This year, though, several players stayed on campus throughout the break to continue training for the spring season. 

The extra work, Foster said, will pay off — but the team can’t get complacent.

“There’s no guarantees,” Foster said. “We’ve put a good team together, and we’ve made progress, but they’ve got to continue doing the work day in and day out.”

Overall, Foster said he has been most impressed by the team’s increased intensity and attention to detail in their training, both on and off the court.

“Doing the things that they can control, in the work that they put in — they’ve made big strides,” Foster said. “… When we were playing the tournaments in the fall, seeing … that their results were improving as a byproduct of that increased focus and attention to detail.”

Junior Theodora Chantava shared the sentiment.

“We’ve done a lot better when we are tired to keep pushing and being more positive,” Chantava said. “I think, yeah, positivity has been improved, and still it needs to be more.”

Offseason upgrades

After the end of the spring 2024 season, senior Natsumi Kurahashi, a cornerstone and leader on the team, graduated. On the court, Kurahashi spent the majority of singles matches on court one, which is typically held for the strongest individual player.

Foster expects sophomore Xin Tong Wang to play the majority of singles matches on the same court this spring after amplifying her game in the fall. 

Wang became the first women’s tennis player to advance out of the singles pre-qualifiers of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) All-American Championships since 2009 and the first women’s player to reach the ITA Central Region Championships singles final since 1983. She also qualified for the NCAA Singles Championship, but her run was cut short due to a sprained ankle. 

But Foster doesn’t expect the ankle sprain to affect her play.

“It wasn’t … such a significant ankle sprain to keep her out too, too long,” Foster said. “She was out a couple weeks and … is good to go.”

Still, Foster said the team is competitive enough that the spot may be fluid; more than one player may hold it throughout the season.

“There’s other players on this roster that I know have goals to play at the top of the lineup as well,” Foster said. “I mean, everyone’s pushing each other, and we want that competitive element within the team … that’s going to only make all of us better and make the team collectively better when we have that competitiveness for lineup positions.”

Chantava pointed to sophomore Giorgia Roselli as another player who has made big steps forward. Chantava said Roselli spent countless hours over the offseason practicing for the spring.

“She’s been really trying hard,” Chantava said. “Like a lot of practice … once, twice, three times a day, sometimes. So it’s been impressive to see and kind of motivating, too … I think she stepped up her game. And I think she can do big things.”

As far as replacing the vocal leadership of Kurahashi, Foster emphasized that it’s going to be a group effort to fill the role.

Chantava agreed that it will take more players to step up and be that vocal leader.

“We’re trying to (get) everyone (more vocal). And the coaches really emphasize that,” Chantava said. “It’s a challenge for those who are a little bit not so loud. It’s a good challenge to challenge themselves and overcome them.”

Foster said the biggest difference between this season’s team and last season’s is the ability to finish matches and dig out crucial wins. 

Last season, the Shockers took the doubles point against the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of Memphis but only etched one win during the singles matches, eventually losing both contests. In the quarterfinals of the American Athletic Conference (AAC) Championship, WSU suffered the same fate after winning the doubles point, still managing to win two singles points in its loss.

This season, Foster said, will be different.

“Last year’s team, we were close in several matches,” Foster said. “And I think this year, we’ve put in that little bit of extra work that is going to give us belief to get over the finish line in some of those moments that maybe we didn’t quite have enough … gas in the tank or belief in the heart or whatever, to execute in those crucial moments last year. This team has already shown that they’ve got that in them and that comes from the work they’ve put in.”

Expectations and success

Foster said the expectations for this team are simple: compete for a conference championship and play in the NCAA Tournament. 

“Those are kind of the benchmarks that we’ve put out there,” Foster said. “I’ve been around enough to know that this team has that in them to compete for a conference championship, win a conference championship and advance to the NCAAs, so that’s the goal.”

Chantava said achieving the expectations and making this season a success will be quite the task, but she is confident in the team.

“We have big goals, and I think it’s a big challenge for us,” Chantava said. “…The NCAA Tournament is the biggest goal, the ultimate goal. But it takes small steps to get there, so we take (it) game by game and focus on what we can control.”

Foster invites everyone to come watch the team play this season because of the “great intensity” and “entertaining” nature of the team.

“College tennis is a great product,” Foster said. “And we’ve got some really engaging and talented, athletic players that would be fun to come to watch.”

Wichita State opened the spring season 1-1 with a loss against the No. 16 University of Oklahoma and a win against the University of Wyoming. 

The Shockers will take on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on Friday, Jan. 24, at 4 p.m.