University of Tennessee Athletics
LADY VOL TENNIS DIARIES - CAITLIN WHORISKEY
March 15, 2007 | Women's Tennis
March 15, 2007
Tennessee freshman netter Caitlin Whoriskey will provide fans of the Lady Vol tennis program a glimpse into her life this week, as she will write diary entries periodically. The Boca Raton, Fla., native will be penning her entries from San Diego, Calif., where the Big Orange will be taking on No. 23 Duke and No. 2 Notre Dame. The UT rookie enters this week's action with an overall singles record of 13-8, including a 5-5 mark in dual-match play.
| March 17, 2007 Our spring break is officially over. We leave for Knoxville tomorrow afternoon. This week flew by faster then I expected. It seems like yesterday we just arrived in sunny San Diego. I have to say the vacation part was great but the matches against Duke and Notre Dame were not so good. We lost to Duke on Wednesday and we ended up losing to Notre Dame yesterday, 1-6. We had our chances to win the doubles point but we lost our focus and aggressiveness at the net. The number one doubles just got outplayed by the No. 5 team in the country. At two doubles we should have won, but we let up and Notre Dame took advantage of our mistake. Our three doubles was close, but I think Notre Dame just had more experience playing together, seeing it was Connor and Vicki's first time playing together. Singles was much better then the doubles. Everyone on the team competed and it was only a couple of loose points here and there that cost us the match. At number six, Zsófia came close to bringing the match to three sets, but lost in the second-set tiebreaker. On my court, I lost in a 10-point tiebreaker for the deciding third set. Connor ended up winning against her opponent at the two spot pretty easily, and Blakeley, Sam and Vicky all had close matches, but Notre Dame was just better that day. Overall, I think this week was a learning experience for everyone. We saw what a top team looks like and we saw what we need to work on to become a top team. I just hope everyone on the team is up for the challenge because I know I am. If we work hard and work like a team, then we have a great chance of becoming a team nobody wants to play. We have the talent and the ability, we just need to use it. |
| March 15, 2007 Yesterday I learned that attitude is everything. It can make you a winner or it can make you go home early. Yesterday was the perfect example of how you need to have a positive attitude while playing or else you're in for a long day. We played Duke yesterday afternoon and it didn't go as well as we planned. We lost 1-6. Some of us competed well and others not so much, myself being one of those people. Even though I won my singles match it felt like a loss seeing my attitude wasn't very good and my team lost. Blakeley had a tough match against Duke's number one. She almost pulled the match to a third set but lost in the second set tiebreaker. Sam lost in a three set match and Connor, Vicki, and Zsofia lost in two. The doubles wasn't that good either. Connor and I lost pretty easily and I feel like it was my fault seeing that I didn't give it everything I had. Our three doubles struggled a bit on their court, but Sam and Blakeley managed a win in their doubles at two. All in all, it wasn't the best day for us. We came to San Diego with goals in mind but I don't think we achieved them against Duke. Fortunately, we'll have the opportunity to beat No. 2 Notre Dame on Friday. This morning the team got up and practiced for a good two hours working on the areas we need the most improvement, and we even got to hit with former Lady Vol Vilmarie Castellvi. I have to say it was a little intimidating. After practice we watched a little bit of Notre Dame playing Duke and took notes on what are game plan is going to be. After watching them you see that they are not unbelievable, they just have confidence in their abilities. If we go out there tomorrow and act like we have nothing to lose then we'll be okay. All the pressure is on them. If we have the right mind set and game plan we should give Notre Dame a fight. Hopefully all goes well tomorrow, and our spring break will be well worth it. |
| March 13, 2007 We started our Spring Break yesterday leaving Knoxville at 6 a.m. and arrived in San Diego at noon. However, we didn't start spring break on the happiest note. We lost to Florida and South Carolina in close matches last weekend. Everyone on the team played extremely well and competed up until the very last point. Connor managed to go three sets in her singles match with an injury, which is unbelievable. She is now my hero! Zsófia had a tough three-set match and competed her heart out, but came up just short. Blakeley and Sam played an amazing doubles match against Florida cruising to an easy win, and Vicki grinded her opponents down with two wins in singles. We all had chances to beat both teams but it came down to experience, nerves and taking advantage of opportunities given to us. We all learned what we need to work on and hopefully we can use what we learned this week against Duke and Notre Dame. I believe that we can beat both of those teams if we all compete and have confidence in ourselves. If we do that then we have a good shot at winning. We play Duke tomorrow at 10 a.m., so we'll see what happens. |
