The Emporia State tennis teams had one of their best seasons last fall. The men’s team hosted Washburn, accomplishing their first league win of the season, then beat Lindenwood to accomplish their second league win.

“The spring semester is definitely more intense than the fall,” said Tawni Griffey, sophomore. “The matches are more important to the season and it takes a lot more work to be successful during the spring.”

The women’s team faced a tough league in 2015, said John Cayton, tennis head coach. The women finished top four in the 2014 season, trying to maintain the same ranking during the 2015 season, but were unable to accomplish their goal.

“Overall, we had a lot of strides forward and we’re looking to build on that in 2016,” Cayton said. “We put a pretty tough schedule together and start with a lot of home matches before we hit the road. We have good talent this season and they have developed from last year to this year, and know what level they must play at in order to be successful.”

Conference matches are played during the spring and the athletes have over 20 matches.

“The biggest challenge for the athletes would probably be recovering between the many matches they play,” Cayton said. “Getting their body and mind ready for the next day is going to be important moving forward.”

A majority of the tennis team is returning for the 2016 season, making another season of high expectations for the athletes.

“We had a close team last season and we enjoyed competing with each other,” said Farhan Sadique, junior. “Coming into this season, we need to build on what we started last year, and help the new players get oriented with the program and make them better athletes.”

Seven of the student-athletes are international students from all over the world.

“It is great being such a diverse team, and knowing people from all over the world,” Farhan said. “We’re all from different places around the world, but we all have one thing that brings us together and that is tennis. The diversity of the team doesn’t come up much, because we are one.”

The Emporia tennis team is hitting for another strong season.

“I am very excited for our spring break trip to St. Louis with the team, and seeing how the team and the new players perform this upcoming season,” said Patrick Cameron, sophomore.

Emporia hosts the first match of the season on Saturday, Feb. 20, against Seward Country Community College at 1 p.m.