Bulls meet goals despite loss to TCU

After losing to TCU in the second round of the Conference USA championship, the USF women’s tennis team swept the consolation bracket to finish No. 5 overall.

“We finally understand what it takes to win college tennis matches,” USF Coach Gigi Fernandez said. “It the first time the whole semester the whole team came together as a team.”

Despite losing to TCU 4-1 on Friday, USF was able to achieve its season goal: to place in the top five at the Conference Championship. They began achieving their goal Saturday when they mowed over DePaul 4-0.

After defeating DePaul, the Bulls went to the final round of the consolation bracket and faced Charlotte for No. 5 in C-USA. The 49rs met the same fate as DePaul did the day before, being overcome 4-0.

“They were pumped; they were excited. It was really the first time that I can say, in the three years that I have been here, that all the players showed up for every single match,” Fernandez said.

Although her team is happy with what they achieved over the weekend, Fernandez cannot help but play the what-if game.

“We had a pretty bad draw,” Fernandez said. “I think if we had had a better draw we would have finished No. 3 or No. 4.”

Fernandez said she felt as though her team was far better than C-USA thought and the No. 9 seeding the Bulls received was inaccurate. But no matter the what-ifs, Fernandez was happy with the way her team stepped up to the challenge.

“It took the whole semester, but we finally showed up at the same time,” Fernandez said.