On behalf of LMU Women's Tennis, I hope you all had anexciting and relaxing holiday season and a great start to 2014! Bring on thenew year! To new beginnings, new classes, new routines and a brand new seasonfor your lady lions! We are all aware that LA doesn't have a 'real' winter andespecially this time around. It's like we are jump-starting back into schoolfrom summer vacation! I know I am not alone in saying that I am notcomplaining. My teammates who ventured back to the cold in Europe for theholidays were experiencing drastically different weather. I know that for surebecause they have all lost their tans....rough. With this blistering heat at theprime of winter here in LA, I'd say their color will return in no time!

A 4-week break was a much-needed time away from school, butI will say by week 3, I was missing LMU, my second home, the place I havefallen so hard for since freshmen year. Knowing that I have 3 remainingsemesters left of college, more than ever, I want to cherish all the memories here especially with my tennis team. After all, they are like family. We've all seeneach other in the best of times as well as through the tough times. But that'swhat has brought us together so well in such a unique atmosphere. I'm soexcited to be reunited with them all again and get the season rolling! Oh andof course we missed Coach Jamie and Ivan...those troopers who are brave to put upwith all of that estrogen. We all know that is no sinch.   

It was a long first week back. We have been away from a regular routine for so long, it definitely will take a little time to get back into theswing of things again with all new classes and a new practice/game schedule. Wewere not completely out of routine over break, however, because Nick, ourstrength training coach assured that we stick to our winter workout programreligiously. It's one of those workout programs that is necessary forregularity because each week alters in weights. Oh and not to mention we wereimmediately welcomed back to school with fitness and strength testing our firstweek back. I mean hey, season is officially here. We have to be proactive with maintaining healthy and strong bodies. And once we get into matches,there is no turning back; match play will be constant.

We did the split squat test, the bench press test, thevertical jump test, an agility test, and lastly, of course, our beloved beep test.... I am so proud of all my teammates efforts this past week withtesting. I can definitely tell that they all worked hard over break to keep up with all their fitness. Nick's goals for us were to improve our results fromour previous test results before break. With the exception of one or two tests,most if not all of my team improved their scores. That's so awesome! This putsus in a great position moving forward as we enter into our beginning matches.

We did a lot of pattern hitting so we can hit a lot of balls and feel comfortable with our strokes. And we've also been experimenting with potential doubles pairs for season. 

This coming Saturday we face Concordia in our opening match at11 and we would love some true Lion support! Hope to see you all out there!Have a great week!

That's all for now,

Logan

Pictured below is pictures from everyone's break. 

Miya (right) celebrating New Years

Laura (far left) out with friends in Germany

Kristine hanging out with Viktoria Azarenka

Madison (right) spending time at home with her sister

Jessica with her pup

Ana Lucia (right) hiking with her sister

Lisa (right) and her twin sister back home in Switzerland

Reka and her boyfriend at the Santa Monica Pier

my brother and myself at the Rose Bowl game 

Julia showin off her new wheels

Ellie (right) with Laura and Julia on our first weekend back