LEWISTON, Maine -- The Bates women's tennis team has played a combined 10 matches the last two springs due to the pandemic. A program on the rise, the Bobcats are ready to show what they can do over the course of a full season, starting Monday in sunny Florida at NCAA Division II opponent Rollins College. The match gets underway at 4pm.

"We are so excited to get back to Florida and play outdoors like we did two years ago," head coach Paul Gastonguay '89 said on the Bates Bobcast. "The NESCAC gave us an earlier start to our practice schedule this year so we are ready for some tough competition to start the year."

The Bobcats are led by senior captains Anna Rozin (Toronto, Ontario) and Sydney Byrnes (Aix-en-Provence, France), who Gastonguay credits with keeping the team humming during the fall while five players were studying abroad. Rozin won two matches in the 64-player singles draw and advanced to the Round of 16 of the ITA Regional Championships in the fall.

Bates is still experimenting with different doubles combinations and Gastonguay expects strong competition for the top singles spots as well.

"We have so much depth this year," Gastonguay said. "It's hard to say who will bubble to the top." 

Rozin and Byrnes are the lone seniors but Bates has a big junior class. Junior Joanna Atwater (Short Hills, N.J.) was off to a 5-1 start in singles before the pandemic shut down the 2020 season. She played at No. 2 singles and teamed with fellow junior Alexandra D'Aquino (Weston, Conn.) in doubles during the 2021 season, which saw the Bobcats play four spring matches, all against NESCAC opponents, and go 2-2. 

Juniors Victoria Scott (Edgartown, Mass.) and Laura Littlefield (Ellicott City, Md.) are back as well, with Scott having played at No. 3 singles last spring for all four matches. Junior Abigail Zerbey (North Andover, Mass.) worked her way to No. 6 singles last spring and junior Grace Kennedy (New York, N.Y.) provides even more depth for the strong junior class.

Bates fans can expect to see sophomore Ally Friedman (East Hampton, N.Y.) make a big impact. She had success this fall as a doubles partner with Rozin and also shined in singles, winning four out of five matches at the Wallach Invitational. Fellow sophomore Salma Alsikafi (Lake Bluff, Ill.) got some doubles experience last spring and this fall as well, successfully teaming with first-year Drew Williams (Guilford, Conn.) for a victory at the Wallach Invitational.

First-year Elizabeth Frekko (Lake Forest, Ill.) won four out of five singles matches over two days along with one doubles match (with Atwater) at the Wallach this fall. 

Only the two seniors remember what a full schedule of 17 regular season spring matches looks like. For Gastonguay, the key to success for the younger players will be having a growth mindset.

"You have to be willing to make changes and look at the long term and not the short term, being able to sacrifice maybe the short term win for being three levels better by the end of the following season," Gastonguay said. "I'm so impressed that everyone's been willing to do that, and they're seeing the gains already."