Freshman Alyssa Carlson hits the ball at the Green-White intrasquad scrimmage last Friday. File photo.

The UND men’s and women’s tennis teams have been hard at work this fall season as they wrapped up their fall campaign with the annual Green-White intrasquad scrimmage last Friday.

The fall season for UND tennis involves individual player tournaments, and points from all the players do not combine into team points in the end.

“It is an experimental season,” senior Stephanie Biehn said. “It gets us ready for the main season that is in the spring. A time to figure out what works and what doesn’t.”

Women’s team

On the women’s side, coach Tom Wynne was encouraged by what he saw out from the squad so far this year.

“The women’s team had a much improved fall season over the previous years as the influx of freshmen players and three seniors gave us a fighting chance in all of our matches,” Wynne said.

In its fall season, the women’s team attended the Drake Invite, Gopher Invitational and Creighton Invite, and finished the season against the men’s team for the Green-White scrimmage — the Green team posting an 87-80 victory over the white team.

Freshman Lacey Sprinkel led the teams with nine victories this fall, followed by fellow freshman Faith Lee with eight.

“This is a team that can take us far into the conference tournament this year,” Biehn said. “We have a much deeper lineup this year.”

Last year, the women didn’t qualify to participate in the conference tournament, so this year is a chance at redemption. The team’s poor doubles performances are what hurt its conference record and kept them from going further.

“We need to get tougher in doubles,” Wynne said, “But I’m hoping the new players will give us a few more options.”

Biehn said the team is much more unified and has better morale than ever before.

“I am looking forward to the spring season and to more wins,” she said.

Wynne also was happy to see continued improvement from his squad on the men’s side.

“On the men’s side, everyone is bigger and more experienced than last year,” Wynne said.

The men attended the Drake Invite and Creighton Invite, finishing the season with the women’s team at the Green-White scrimmage.

Sophomore Will Biernat had a standout fall season as he led the team with five victories and winning the “B” flight at the Drake Invite.

While the women’s team has welcomed many new freshman, the men’s team will look to build off previous experience.

“We only added one new player in Dusty Britton,” Wynne said. “He was injured for a good part of the fall, but has proven that when he gets in he will be a valuable piece to the team.”

The two teams will focus on lifting and will continue practicing indoors during their winter off-season.

Allison Moore is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. She can be reached at [email protected].