As the only tennis players representing Gustavus at the ITA Small College Championships in Mobile, AL, the Women’s Tennis doubles team of Senior Sierra Krebsbach and Junior Sam Frank faced extremely tough competition with an eighth place finish. The ITA Championships feature the top eight singles and doubles teams in the country as a result of winning their respective regional tournament. Krebsbach and Frank earned their spot by winning the Midwest Regional held at Gustavus in September 2009, while automatically receiving recognition for ITA All-American honors.
“Everyone is so close in skill level that there are a lot of close matches, and it is really fun,” Krebsbach said. “We lost our first match in a super tie-breaker in the third set, so that was really tough.”
Even though Krebsbach and Frank suffered a tough loss in the first round, the format of the ITA Championships guarantees three matches for every competitor. However, the competition didn’t get any easier for the doubles duo. “We lost our second and third matches too, but [they were both] really close matches,” Krebsbach said.
Despite their 0-3 record, Krebsbach and Frank were still able to obtain some encouragement from their performance going into the spring season. “Sam and I don’t feel like we played our best tennis,” Krebsbach said. “It was disappointing, but we barely lost. It provides us with motivation that we can beat those girls in the spring. We are so close to that level, and we didn’t even play our best tennis.”
As a senior leader of the Gustavus Women’s Tennis team, Krebsbach plans to train hard this off-season in preparation for her final spring season as a Gustie. “I want to work on returning and serving since those are important, especially in doubles. We also need to work on our consistency and maintain that high level of play for the whole match,” Krebsbach said.
The Gustavus Women’s Tennis team will look forward to strong performances by Krebsbach and Frank to lead their team to a successful spring season. “I would love for the team to make it past NCAA Quarterfinals,” Krebsbach said. “Most importantly, I want to see our team do well [this spring].”