Alma Espinosa competes in a match from a previous season. Espinosa will be playing her last game as a Cowgirl this Saturday, Senior Day, against CSU.
The Wyoming tennis team will have their final home match of the season against CSU, where they will honor four girls.
Seniors Alma Espinosa, Christa Gecheva, Jessica Parizher and Silviya Zhelyazkova will all play their last matches at UW. Head women’s tennis coach Dean Clower has been there since these girls began playing at Wyoming and he could not be more grateful.
“All four of those girls have been the pillars of the program. You know people talk about me breaking the record, as far as coaching wins, but those girls have been here for every single win. It is really like we broke the record,” coach Clower said.
The seniors have helped Wyoming win 48 games over the past four years. They have learned many qualities with their time at UW, but one quality sticks out the most for Alma Espinosa.
“I think mostly its hard work. Getting up every morning, going to lift weights, then going to practice going to school, all of it. It is something that you are not use to when you come to college. You have to adjust and obviously that has been one of the main things that has taught me how to work hard,” Espinosa said.
Alma Espinosa was injured at the beginning of the year and has come back to play in the spring. She has an individual record of 2-0 and an 8-4 record with Christa Gecheva in doubles. Even though her season and career is about to come to an end she still wants to leave a legacy at UW.
“Our main goal especially us four seniors is win this Mountain West Championship. We have been here four years and we have been close to doing it but we have not achieved it. That’s our main goal, I think it would be great if we could get there,” Espinosa said.
These seniors might not know it, but they have already left a mark on their coach. The student has taught the teacher.
“(They) taught me a lot about life. They taught me about how I am going to raise my daughter. I have always thought that if my daughter was the same as those four when she is at that age, I will be very happy,” coach Clower said.
As far as the match against the Rams, both coach Clower and Alma are confident in the team and feel they will put out a good effort.
“Honestly, if we play our style of tennis, play aggressive, we should be ok. If we play passive and don’t play our style of tennis, it is going to be a tight one,” coach Clower said.
Wyoming play a face off against Colorado State this Saturday at 4 p.m. at the UW Indoor Tennis Courts.
