The Gophers tennis team is focused on a challenging competition week.
The team will compete in the Spartan invite at Michigan State University from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2, with the ITA Conference Championship around the corner. Gophers seniors Sofia Pinto, Arina Valitova and Anali Kocevar will compete along with juniors Jeselle Ante, Anlin Xie, Mia Liepert and sophomore Nora Knezevic.
Junior Jeselle Ante said preparing is about starting the mental work a week early.
“I had a practice at 6 a.m. the other day, and I realized the energy wasn’t where it is supposed to be in practice,” Ante said. “I told myself that we have a meeting coming up, I put goals for every meeting and that helped me push in practice ahead of the Michigan meeting.”
Senior Anali Kocevar added that recovery is important to succeed in the next meets.
“For me, recovery is a big thing, I make sure I eat good and sleep good. These two factors make a big difference,” Kocevar said. “We practice hard even if we have a tournament during the week, two to three days before I work on the mental part, visualizing myself playing and setting my goals.”
As the season comes to an end, players have high confidence in recent results, according to Kocevar.
Kocevar and Ante competed in the ITA Central Regional Championships, where both players failed to advance past the round of 32 in singles competition.
Both players expressed how proud they were of their contributions to the team.
“As a team, we did a great tournament, and we feel proud of the results we got,” Kocevar said. “Personally, I didn’t have a good season last year, and I was very happy with my performance.”
Ante said she accomplished her goals in the meeting.
“Even though I didn’t feel a hundred percent physically, I feel I had a great tournament and accomplished my goals,” Ante said. “I felt my mentality was strong and I was able to fight for every point.”
Ante said she is ready for more competition.
“Talking to the coaches, I feel I have been slowly playing at a higher level, and this meeting was proof of what I can bring to the table and represent the Gophers,” Ante said.
Both players are recent transfers to Minnesota. Ante transferred from the University of Wyoming after her freshman year, and Kocevar transferred from Grand Canyon University in her sophomore year.
Ante said playing for the Gophers has brought her joy in playing tennis again.
“When I was in Wyoming, I didn’t feel happy, and I couldn’t find my best despite training hard,” Ante said. “Coming to Minnesota was life-changing. I felt a sense of belonging to the community of the Gophers compared to Wyoming.”
Kocevar reflected on her last matches for the Gophers and how it was coming to play for Minnesota.
“I decided to come to Minnesota because of the culture in the Gophers’ sports, also considering the Big Ten is a hard conference,” Kocevar said. “Going to my last season, I came with the mentality of enjoying and making the most out of playing college tennis for the last time.”
For Kocevar and Ante, it is all about putting the Gopher’s tennis team in the best possible position.
