On Saturday, younger members of the Belles tennis team will travel to Adrian College in Michigan to scrimmage the Bulldogs.Although Adrian is usually an MIAA conference member, this year it lacked the sufficient interest in the program to field a team. Nevertheless, MIAA teams have scheduled scrimmages with the remaining members so that they still have a chance to play this year. The Belles are sending seven girls, mainly freshman. "All of them are really excited to play in their first college match," captain Miranda Mikulyuk said. "This is a chance to give the regular players a break and allow the backup players to gain some valuable experience."The Belles' season has gotten off to a slow start, with a match against Olivet College having been rescheduled on two different occasions. Saint Mary's match against the University of Chicago is its only match of the regular season so far, aside from preseason matches played over spring break."It's hard to say how our season is going because we've only had one match," Mikulyuk said. "But we had a really good doubles performance at the University of Chicago match. "Due to an injury, we had to switch the lineup, and we played with partners that we hadn't really practiced with at all. The fact that we performed well in such a situation is awesome, and I think that will dictate how our season will go."The Belles are looking forward to better weather in coming weeks so they can start consistently practicing outside. The cold weather has forced them inside to do conditioning training, and the team can't wait to finally hit the courts.
