By Esgardo Castelan

“I’ve seen the changes by looking at my stats; I won three games last year, but this year I won eight,” said Celine Figueroa, a Lehman junior majoring in exercise science. Figueroa is one of three Lehman women’s tennis team athletes who received recognition at the close of this season for their hardworking performances.

Students Cien Estuye, a senior also majoring in exercise science, and Figueroa won the City University of New York Athlete Conference All-Star honors. Diwa Rana, a sophomore nursing major, received the Sportsmanship Team player.

Led by their efforts, the team continues to improve. This year’s season started on Aug. 30 against Yeshiva College and ended with a game against Hunter College in the CUNY Championship semi-finals on Oct. 22. The team normally faces 19 colleges in a season, five of which are CUNY. While they lost to Baruch, John Jay and Hunter College, they won against Brooklyn and York College.

Overall, the Lehman team won more games this year compared to 2018-2019’s 4-7 record. They reached a 9-7 score in the semifinals, with Estuye scoring 11-3 playing singles, and 6-5 in doubles. Figueroa for her part scored 9-7 in singles, while Rana scored 9-6 in both singles and doubles. Estuye, Figueroa, and fellow player, Lizaveta Markouskaya, all said the team's current focus lies in improving players’ mental and psychological preparation. The coach’s responsibility is to ensure team members can count on strong self-esteem to see that games are well-played and victorious.

“Our team has a sisterhood type of bond that makes me want to improve even more,” said Estuye.

Senior athletes and team leaders, Lizaveta Markouskaya and Leslie Juanico, encourage the team by teaching newcomers the basics of the game.

“We have a new coach this year, Michal Bareket-Bloom, who will work on bringing in more people for the team,” said Markouskaya, a 21-year-old senior biology and chemistry major. “The returning players will be in the loop so there are no surprises, which means everyone will be comfortable to move forward.”

“Coach Michal is very encouraging with each member of the team, which in return makes the players perform better; with her, it’s really about your mindset,” said Figueroa.

Baraket-Bloom praised her team’s progress. “I absolutely believe the team has improved so much more; without sounding conceited, it was the same team as last year with better records this year,” she explained.

Since the team is losing three seniors at the end of this season, Bareket-Bloom’s main task as a coach is to recruit more players for the next one. As she decides on each player’s skill level for future games and observes who works better together, she couples certain players for doubles based on their compatibility and skill level. It’s to see if a novice can play with an intermediate player, even with the lack of experience and not knowing how to use the fundamentals. 

“Once the pre-season starts it’s all about seeing who will play in what position on the team and what strategy is better for the team. Players take positions ranging from one through six to know who is playing in what level; the best player will be number one and so forth,” Markouskaya told the Meridian.

Estuye explained that during practices the team will be divided in two parts. One coach will take up to two players and focus on drills, while the other half of the team works as a group to develop a bond with one another, improving the team’s overall compatibility.

“It’s the little details that count,” Estuye said. “We will execute better during games to cover each other’s weaknesses while adding more to each other’s strengths.”