Nyema Gillespie
The Mount takes a monumental win at the Bedford Cup on Sunday at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park Maryland. When the Mount’s women’s tennis team earned 5 consecutive single wins.
The women’s tennis team is off to an amazing start for the season, with 2 of the players Freshmen Venus Tang and Emma Perkins successfully having a record of 4-0. The great work ethic paired with Coach Misdrachis leadership skills makes the perfect blend for a successful tennis season to come. Players Emma Kaden, Valentine Mudry, Venus Tang, Amari O’Brien and Emma Perkins won in their competitions. Kaden and Perkins slammed the competition in both of their sets whereas O’Brien, Tang and Mudry each won their tiebreakers. Following their groundbreaking success, the women are expected to attend the Towson Tiger Fall Invitational, where they will compete against the following schools, Towson, Loyola, Georgetown and George Mason.
Leandros Misdrachis, the Interim Head Coach for the Tennis division at the Mount gave insight behind the scenes on how to prepare for something as big as the Bedford Cup. “Intense practice.” Misdrachis answers. “Trying to stimulate all the matches in practice and have time dedicating to recovery after every practice and game. I would say the biggest challenge would be the number of matches in such a short time. But we did manage to be prepared for that by our practice and our recovery.” The Mount Tennis team is NCAA Division I.
Meaning more preparation and dedication goes into practicing as compared to intramural sports which come with its benefits as well as challenges.
Misdrachis explains he makes sure his athletes have a good sense of direction. To be a successful college athlete you must have a strong sense of motivation as well as be focused on and off the court.
“What I'm trying to tell my players is that the first thing that they need to understand is, to compete and be competitive and you know, succeed in this sport you have to enjoy it first of all, right? You must enjoy the feeling of competition.” Misdrachis explains. “Competing at this level is a privilege, not a lot of people have.” He believes passion and competition are the ultimate drivers for success for his athletes. Without them, they cannot reach their full potential. Misdrachis looks up to his previous coaches as inspiration as well as his own experience as a D1 player for leading the new generation. “One of the biggest inspirations that I have are my previous coaches. I used to play D1 Tennis, I have lots of experience and I saw how I was lucky enough with all my coaches… it is something that I always looked up to and I thought, you know this is something that I always wanted to do.” He believes there is no such thing as a good athlete without a great coach, regarding his coaching strategies. He believes in encouraging his players to be the best that they can be, similar to what his previous coaches had instilled in him.
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