Trinity Women’s Tennis Pushes Through Challenging NESCAC Season

Annika Haley ’26

Sports Editor

The Trinity College women’s tennis team is in the midst of their 2025 season with a record of 5-9 overall and 0-7 within the NESCAC. The Bantams have faced challenges within the competitive NESCAC this season, where every match presents high competition against nationally ranked opponents. Although the Bantams have been facing adversity, they have shown resilience and determination, continuing to put in the work both on and off the court. 

The Trinity women’s tennis team started their season strong by going undefeated during their spring break trip to Orlando, Florida. They beat New Paltz (6-1), University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (5-2), Springfield College (6-1) and Colby Sawyer College (6-0). These wins showcased their talent and the potential they have for success. 

The Tripod was able to sit down with Naisha Rathi ’27 to talk about this season of growth and how her and the team has been overcoming adversity. To give some context about the team’s season so far, Rathi said, “Our season started off good. We had a couple wins under our belt. During spring break, we went undefeated which was good. In conference, play has been challenging. The team dynamic feels good, it’s just something isn’t clicking perfectly.”

When a challenging season arises, the team must confront the adversity head on and do what they can to deal with the ups and downs. Regarding this season’s challenges, Raishi stated: “I’m a sophomore so I’ve only been on the team for two years, but this team dynamic feels so much better than last year. We are all very open and communicative about everything. We share all of our struggles and what we have been going through so that has been great. We have these team meetings every time we feel like there is a challenge arising. We write everything down and create a vision board on how to overcome challenges and what we expect for the future.”

Records do not always account for success and growth of a team. When asked about her personal and team improvements that she has noticed this season, Rashi said, “Individually there’s been a lot of improvement for me, but it’s still hard because I am playing a lot higher on the lineup than I was last year. I do feel like I am playing better but it has been a lot more challenging. As a team we have had such a strong connection, as I said, which has been great.”

It is so important for teams to find motivation and determination when facing hard competition. Regarding motivation and how to find it, Rashi said, ““We always talk about how our biggest motivation is playing for each other. We all see ourselves and each other working so hard, and it sucks that we don’t see the results follow through with it, but we do see each other working hard in practices and lifts which motivates each other to improve. Even with the losses, we are learning so much. That in itself is such a motivation for us because we are learning from our mistakes and now know what to do better for next time.”

The Bantams have been able to stay connected as a team throughout this season both on and off the court. Rashi explained the ways her team feels connected: “Team bonding is always great. We love to do team activities outside of tennis, like cooking together and eating together. We love food as a team, like we just all love trying new foods so that has been a big highlight for us. Finding that special thing that brings us all together outside of tennis has been really nice.” 

It can be difficult to keep a high level of energy while facing challenging obstacles on the court. When asked about how the team keeps their energy up, Rashi explained, “There is a range of energies on our team. We have people that are more quiet and people that are very loud and expressive and we have been able to find a way to balance that. No matter what, our biggest goal in every match is to be the loudest ones on the court and we’ve always been able to do that whether it’s through our voices or through our body language. Ella Baker ’25, our captain, is one of the more reserved people on the team but this season she has come out of her shell like I have never seen before. She has been cheering between her points and cheering all her teammates on and being very loud and expressive. Also, one of our first years, Madison Damond ’28, can uplift anyone’s mood if they are feeling down. She is always able to find a way to uplift her teammates. She is just the best.”

Switching gears into looking into the future, Rashi talked about both her personal goals and the team’s goals for the rest of the 2025 season and seasons to come: “Something I have always struggled with on the court is being expressive. In my head I can get very up and down mentally. Tennis is such a mental sport. Your opponent could be worse than you technically, but if they have a better mental game they have so much more power over you so staying even in my mental side of the game for the rest of the season and seasons ahead is very important to me. We are playing some of the best girls in the country, so as a team our goal is to not get into a bad mindset going into matches. Our goal is to have the same mindset going into each match no matter the opponent.”