Jake Douglas in action during the Huskies' 6-1 triumph over Pacific.
The Washington men’s tennis team will play consecutive days for the first time this season as it faces off against Pepperdine Friday at 4 p.m. and Princeton Saturday at 3 p.m.
This will closely resemble the Huskies’ schedule for the majority of the season. They play at least two matches a week for five of the next six weeks.
Head coach Matt Anger is not worried about the added workload at this point in the season.
“Growing up, players play tournaments. They might play five days in a row or something, so they are used to doing that, so it makes it sound like college is easy when you don’t have that. But in the college matches, there’s so much more emotion,” Anger said. “It’s funny, guys can say ‘Oh, you just play a match or two on the weekend, that’s so easy,’ and then they come and they’re just exhausted after a weekend. There’s just more emotion and intensity in a team situation than there is when they are growing up.”
Anger is not making any changes in practice in preparation for the quick turnaround. He is just emphasizing the importance of rest and taking care of their bodies.
Junior Piers Foley echoed the importance of being fully rested.
“It’s a lot of recovery and rest,” Foley said. “Straight after the match you want to eat well, recover well, sleep well, and then get ready for the next day and just give it your all.”
Foley also mentioned how important it is to stay focused on Pepperdine and not look ahead to Princeton.
“We take it one match at a time, we’re focused on Friday and as soon as we finish that one, move onto the next one,” Foley said. “Right now, our focus is on the first match and once that’s over we’ll then prepare and get ourselves ready for the next match.”
This is an experienced team that has dealt with multiple matches in a weekend plenty of times at the college level. The only freshman in the lineup is Jack Davis. This will be a great experience for him and a good test rest of the team as they start playing more matches more frequently.
Reach reporter Kyle Gehler at sports@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @KyleGehler
