Laura Ring and the Cougars host Prairie View A&M on Saturday and hope to bounce back from their latest loss with a strong showing as the regular season winds down. | Newton Liu/The Daily Cougar
With only five matches remaining before the Conference USA Championships, the Cougars know that the time to produce is now. UH will take on Prairie View A&M at 2 p.m. Saturday at the John E. Hoff Tennis Courts.
Head coach John Severance sees every match as an opportunity to bring UH back to its winning ways. After a disappointing loss to Missouri on March 21, he hopes that UH will bounce back and have a strong showing Saturday.
“There is no easy opponent this year,” Severance said, “so hopefully we’re going to go out and have all our girls playing well. There is very little time before the conference tournament, so we have to be firing on all cylinders.”
Severance said he thought the match against Missouri was a lot closer than the final score would suggest. UH lost the match 7-0, but by no means was it a blowout.
“We haven’t been blown out of any match,” Severance said. “In the Missouri match we should have won the double’s point, and then we were close in four matches. We could have had the score 5-2 in our favor if a few more points had gone our way.”
UH has battled its way to an 8-6 overall record this season, but in order secure a good spot in the conference tournament, it would be best for UH to win out the remaining games of the regular season.
“We have five matches left, and I feel we need to win all five so that we can have the best chance possible in the conference,” Severance said.
As far as what the team needs to do in order to win, Severance feels that the desire to win is a key factor.
“The girls have to go out and want it,” said Severance. “They’re the ones playing.”
This year has been called a rebuilding year for the program, and for the team to go through slumps is not surprising.
“It’s to be expected in a rebuilding year and having such a young team,” said Severance. “We haven’t had a day where all six girls were playing their best tennis. When we come close, we have good results.”
Severance talked about how five of the six players performed extremely well against Colorado State and turned in a 6-1 victory on March 18. He said that in order for them to be successful, everyone has to perform on a more consistent basis.
“With a young team, you’re not going to get the consistent day-to-day performances,” he said. “They need to learn how to do that.”
