Weekend warriors - The Rider Newspaper

UTRGV tennis junior Dominique Ibarra practices for her upcoming tennis matches. The women’s tennis team will face the Prairie View A&M University Panthers at 2 p.m. Saturday in the Orville I. Cox Tennis Center and the Texas A&M University-Kingsville Javelinas at 1 p.m. Sunday. Valeria Alanis/The Rider

Home-court advantage can make or break a match. UTRGV tennis will be put to the test this weekend as it takes on two A&M universities.

The men’s tennis team will face off against the Prairie View A&M University Panthers at 11 a.m. Saturday at UTRGV’s own Orville I. Cox Tennis Center in Edinburg.

At 2 p.m. that day, the women will play the Panthers. The women will also face the Kingsville Javelinas at 1 p.m. Sunday.

Dominique Ibarra, UTRGV women’s tennis junior, said she is excited for the first home match of the season and that the team has an advantage playing in Edinburg.

“We’re playing in our home, in our court, so we’re used to the weather, to the environment, so that’s a point in favor to our team,” Ibarra said.

UTRGV Women’s tennis won the 2015-2016 WAC Women’s Tennis Championship under previous Head Coach Stephanie Wooten-Quijada.

Now, current Head Coach Sonia Hahn has her eyes set on giving UTRGV women’s tennis its second conference championship.

“You always want to win the WAC championship, I mean, that’s always a yearly goal,” Hahn said. “I want them to continue to get better and I always tell them I want them to be a better player and person when they leave as a senior than when they started as a freshman. So, every year, as long as they continue to improve, that’s all that matters.”

Men’s Head Coach Dann Nelson said he emphasizes consistency with his players in practice.

“We do a lot of consistency, being able to put the ball in play as much as we can,” Nelson said. “We do a lot of conditioning; we do a lot of weight training. … We also do a lot of recovery work to get us ready for our next matches.”

Nelson’s plan for UTRGV men’s home opener consists of focusing on what they’re supposed to do.

He’s hoping to win two out of three doubles matches and to start off fast in the singles matches by winning the first set on all six courts quickly to close out Prairie View A&M.

“We want to do the very best we can,” Nelson said. “One of the goals that we’re doing is believing in ourselves and in each other. The other goal that we have is to send out our seniors on a high note, for them to have the best year that they’ve ever had and we’re off to a good start with that.”

Elliot Johnstone, one of UTRGV men’s tennis seniors, said he feels hopeful for the team’s prospects this season.

“We feel good,” Johnstone said last Thursday. “We’ve got a deep team this year. Probably the deepest and strongest team I’ve had in my four years. We’re pretty confident. Obviously, [we] had a good first win against Rice University [on Jan. 14] and, hopefully, we’ll have another good weekend this week [vs. New Mexico and No. 24 Texas Tech] and we’ll be ready for it.”

As of press time, the results for UTRGV’s match against New Mexico University and Texas Tech University were unavailable. Visit goutrgv.com for results.

Koby Jansen, another UTRGV men’s tennis senior, said his confidence in his team for this season stems from a deeper understanding of each other and a willingness to work on the bigger picture as a team rather than individually.

“For right now, we’re focusing on winning each and every match, trying to improve as a team and we feel confident against anyone no matter who we go up against,” Jansen said.

—Valeria Alanis contributed to this report.