The Marshall University women’s tennis team struck lighting this past weekend at the “Thunder in The Mountains” tournament. 

 On the first day of competition, The Herd was victorious in singles action over Villanova from Madi Ballow, Emma Vanderheyden, Sophia Hurrion, Jutte Van Hansewyck, Rieke Gillar, Liz Stefancic and Kylie Fisher. 

Marshall also struck up a pair of doubles victories over two different Saint Francis doubles teams by Hurrion and Kara Joseph.  

Kara Joseph, junior, said, “I think this past weekend, I learned a lot. It was a lot of hard work, and I think I played pretty well considering this is my first tournament and my first couple matches in a couple years because of COVID-19. Getting back into it is really good.”  

On day two of the tournament The Marshall Thundering Herd were able to garner 10 singles wins during two rounds of singles matchups and a round of doubles.

These victories included a sweep of West Virginia State as well. Hurrion, Ballow, Vanderheyden and Van Hansewyck each picked up two victories in straight sets in singles play.

 Stefancic and Gillar pulled out a win in doubles against Villanova, while Aisling McGrane and Hurrion picked up a double victory themselves.  

“As a team it was a really good learning experience. I think we are supporting each other as a team as well, which is something that is a little is different from last year,” Kara Joseph, junior,  said. “We’ve really bonded as a team and I think that was really clear this weekend. We were supporting each other really well and we really wanted each other to win.” 

In the third and final day of the tournament on Sunday, Marshall picked up two singles victories via Ballow, and Stefancic against West Virginia University. 

Head coach John Mercer saids about Stefancic and Ballow’s performance, “It was really fun to watch. As the weekend went along, they kept raising the level of their game, we are trying to get better, and keep working hard every day in practice and really try to keep improving as a team.”  

The herd will be back on the courts Oct. 1-4 in the ITA Atlantic Regional in Lynchburg Virginia.