After a spring season that didn’t meet expectations, the Mississippi State women’s tennis team has regrouped, reloaded and reorganized its workouts for a return trip to the national rankings.
A recruiting visit to South Africa, a campus visitor from the Gulf Coast and a little serendipity later, the Bulldogs discovered a winning combination of two freshmen.
Hayley Rudman, of Randpark, South Africa, and Brittany Serret, of Ocean Springs, Miss., partnered for the first time at the ITA Southern Regional Championships and won the Flight B doubles 8-5.
Head coach Tracy Lane said that injuries and wanting to maintain one doubles team influenced the unlikely pairing of newcomers.
“Honestly, if our fourth team could have gone to the tournament, that’s probably not a combination that we would have tried,” Lane said.
“We had people that we had to pull out of the tournament. Instead of breaking up one of my two combinations, we decided to let Brittany and Hayley-they’re good friends and have good chemistry-play together,” Lane explained.
Rudman said that Lane (of Johannesburg, South Africa) made an impression on her during a recruiting trip. Serret said that getting to meet Lane and the rest of the team sold her on being a Bulldog.
Both are adjusting to the lifestyle of an NCAA student-athlete.
“I’ve never practiced this much before so it is a shock to my body, but I am getting used to it,” said Rudman. “America’s totally different from South Africa, but the people here are so friendly and I am getting along with everyone.”
“Study habits have been my biggest adjustment,” added Serret. “Studying is a 24-7 job-I’m not used to that.”
The women’s tennis teams have consistently ranked at the top of all MSU teams in GPA and in seven years no team has been under a 3.0 thanks to Lane’s influence.
“I truly believe that to be a disciplined athlete you have to be discipline in the classroom,” says Lane. “Anytime we get a C or below a red flag goes up. Every athlete knows my expectations. Grades may drop because it’s a tough course for the individual, but more times than not it’s because the individual has failed to apply herself.”
Lane says fall tennis helps each player work on her own abilities and that reorganizing practice has led to the success that was hard to find in spring.
“We’ve added two new girls. We only lost one player from last year. Our practices have been formatted differently-where we are getting more from our players during the workouts,” says Lane. “We’re practicing at a much higher level. The girls go to matches believing they can do well.”
Lane says the freshmen pair has shown winning doubles qualities.
“You have to have respect for your partner,” says Lane. “You have to have good communication skills, you’ve got to back each other up and you’ve got be able to compliment each other.”
“Brittany is a phenomenal doubles player because she can read things well within the point,” continues Lane. “Hayley is awesome from the baseline. They complimented each other.”
“She’s (Rudman) getting more confidence at the net and the more she does it, the better she’ll get,” explains Serret. “We communicate and set each other up.”
Rudman and Serret are bonding off the court as well.
“She’s one of my very good friends outside of tennis,” says Serret.
“We just really connect,” explains Rudman.