Siebel, King kick off fall training season for Tigers

This weekend, the women's tennis team began its fall season, sending sophomore Ivana King and senior Jessica Siebel to William & Mary for the Tribe Invitational. While King and Siebel turned in strong performances in both singles and doubles, the experience they gained was more important than their actual results — the fall season is intended as the time to prepare for Ivy League competition in the spring.

"The fall season is made up of individual tournaments and does not bear on the results of the team," senior Ali Hashmall said. "[It's] more of a chance for everyone to stay in shape and get good match play."

The Tigers have several goals they will be focusing on this fall, including improving their overall doubles play. Because the doubles matches are played before the singles matches, they allow a team to set the tone for the day. Last season, in matches in which Princeton was able to claim the doubles point, the team had a much higher winning percentage.

In addition to starting strong, the Tigers also hope to improve their ability to finish off their foes. Hashmall noted that "winning in tight and pressured situations" will be a key objective for the team this year. Improved conditioning should help Princeton close out matches that go down to the wire.

"We have a new trainer flying in from Canada to work with us," junior Laura Trimble said. "We're hoping that being more fit will give us an advantage against otherwise even opponents."

Head start

In Williamsburg, Va., this weekend, both King and Siebel got a head start on the experience necessary to push for their team's goals.

King won her first match in the "E" bracket against Bethany James from Virginia Tech, but she was then defeated by Katja Kovacic from Texas Tech in the second round, 6-4, 6-4. King went on to win her match in the consolation bracket against Penn's Sarah Schiffman.

Siebel fell to Beatrice Grasu of Richmond in the first round of the "B" bracket in three sets and was then defeated in the consolation round by Jeanne Schwartz of Marshall. She finished with a decisive victory against Amanda Saiontz of Brown.

King and Siebel also played doubles together against a team from Maryland, falling 8-4.

Overall, the players put forth promising results in their first action of the year, but more importantly, they started building toward a strong spring.

"Although the fall is not our main season, we try to approach it with the same seriousness as the spring," Trimble said. "[It] appears more individual, [but] we're still representing Princeton, and our individual results make an impression with other teams and hopefully give us confidence facing opponents in the spring."