Mercer’s women’s tennis team competed in the Region 19 championship final on Tuesday, April 21st at the Mercer Park Tennis Center and won 2nd place overall, advancing their 1st and 2nd seed to nationals.
MCCC entered this season with five wins and three losses. Last season’s record was eight wins and three losses.
Prior to the finals, the head coach and assistant coach voiced their priorities for the players.
Qasim Khan, Mercer’s head coach, said, “just play the best you can and not give up on any shots and then hopefully let all your hard work and training do the rest. ”
Barb Pleva, the assistant coach, said, “I want them to come off the court feeling they put everything they could into getting ready for here, not being disappointed that I should have done this, I should have done that, and accomplishing their goals for their match.”
The matches were held outside with a gentle breeze. Coaches, spectators, and teammates quietly watched as the game unfolded, shouting encouraging commentary when a point was scored.
Julia Fillat Ferrer, a second year graphic design major and the Mercer team’s star player, faced Ava Becker, an environmental science student from Ocean County Community College. Fillat Ferrer faced a challenge as tension rose and points ping-ponged between them.
A pivotal moment occurred in the first half of the final singles match when Becker began to lose her rhythm as the match progressed, and Fillat Ferrer began dictating play with heavy, deep balls, leaving Becker visibly frustrated. In the end, Fillet Ferrer secured a victory with the final score for the two sets coming to 6-4- and 6-2.
After the game both players voiced their feelings about the results.
Fillat-Ferrer said, “It feels so good. I’ve been working the whole season for this, and I just feel like I did what I had to do.”
Becker said, “Mercer, they’ve always been good opponents, always. Credit to them, they’re amazing. All that is, if we lose, we know what we have to do.”
According to Coach Khan, Rowan College of South Jersey was Mercer’s biggest competitor during the championship and won 1st overall.
Nick Raddi, Assistant Coach for the RCSJ women’s team said, “We knew that Mercer was probably going to be our biggest competition. We knew kind of what points we had to win and everything like that coming out.”
Overall, Mercer won three out of the seven matches during the championship, for the doubles matches won first entirely.
Starting Thursday, April 30 the tennis team will head to Sumter, South Carolina to compete in the nationals tournament.
Pleva said, “If you did the best that you can, the outcome is what the outcome is.”
