Throughout the 2011 campaign, the Virginia women's tennis team has continually topped itself time and time again. After securing a top-10 ranking for the first time in program history, the Cavaliers went on to notch their first-ever victory against a top-five foe, match their previous all-time win record with 18 triumphs and set a new ACC win record with seven conference victories.
But the path to success is often sprinkled with both triumphant and trying moments, and it's often the latter that truly defines a team's character, resolve and ability to reach new heights as it looks ahead toward the future.
For Virginia, that defining moment came less than a month ago as the seemingly unending highs associated with the squad's rise to the program's first-ever top-10 ranking suddenly came to a screeching halt.
The Cavaliers entered the March 20 match against Maryland brimming with confidence - not surprising for a team which had collected a No. 8 ranking at the beginning of the month, jumping out to a program-best record and notching a 4-3 victory against then-No. 3 Baylor at the ITA National Team Indoor event. But that confidence seemed to disappear after the Terrapins handed Virginia a 4-3 loss, setting in motion a stretch during which the Cavaliers dropped three of their next four matches.
"When you get rewarded with a ranking like that, it does put pressure on you to continue to perform," sophomore Erin Vierra said. "We kind of let the pressure get the best of us. We [had] something to prove - that [our top-10 ranking] wasn't a fluke."
Coach Mark Guilbeau also noticed a considerable difference in his team's mentality following its rise to unprecedented heights - and its struggle with the subsequent pressures associated with maintaining such a high level of success.
"There was definitely a shift, it seemed like, in our team," Guilbeau said. "It does seem like we didn't maintain quite that level that got us to the top 10 initially. It's something that I'm responsible for as a coach."
But the players themselves also took responsibility for the mid-season slide and gathered together to discuss how each individual athlete valued the team's overall ranking and what a top-10 ranking meant for the Cavaliers' mentality.
"When you set the bar at a certain standard, that becomes the norm," junior Emily Fraser said. "I think that maybe in the past, we haven't yet set the bar that high. We're not quite used to the norm being that level. I think in some places it was a case of players being too nervous and in other places too confident."
But both Fraser and Vierra indicated that, since the mid-season slump, the Cavaliers have made a concentrated effort to strike a balance between playing with confidence and playing with humility on the court - a feat which they believe will best prepare them to deal with the pressure as they climb their way back up the standings and enter postseason play.
"I think we've made great strides, and it's come from every single person on this team," Vierra said. "We talk a lot about how it needs to be 100 percent. If 1 percent is off, the whole thing is off. I think we're getting a lot closer to that. We have a more driven group than it seems that Virginia has had in the past and I think everybody is really committed to making this program a national contender year in and year out."
Vierra and the rest of the Cavaliers hope that their new outlook on success and commitment to the team's goal of competing for an ACC and NCAA title not only will propel this season's group throughout upcoming postseason play but also have lasting effects for the program as a whole.
The sophomore, who chose to come to Charlottesville based on her ability to make lasting changes to the culture of Virginia women's tennis, believes that the program is in the midst of a significant turnaround and can continue to set a high bar for success.
"Growing up, [getting to the] top-10 in the country is just an amazing feat," Vierra said. "Part of the reason why we chose Virginia is to be a part of changing a program around and to be a part of that building process. I think for the absolute top girls out there, this is what they're looking for."
Guilbeau seconded Vierra's notion that this season's success will give the Cavaliers a better shot at nabbing the nation's top recruits and making continual strides as a collective unit.
"The phone starts ringing, and really recruiting happens now so early that the prospects coming out of high school, they really start to make up their minds largely before you contact them," Guilbeau said. "They're looking at maybe the top-10, top-15 programs in the country. So, when you're not within that group, you're largely missing out on a lot of connection that is made from the prospect your way. It's a dramatic difference when they're looking for you."
And while the Cavaliers' overall season should have positive implications for the program in the future, Virginia is still not ready to label this season as a success with postseason play still remaining.\n"I think there are so many great opportunities left in this season that any rough patch that we had before is really irrelevant," Vierra said. "We're not going to let the pressure of that moment or the pressure of a ranking - which is just a number - get to us. We're going to embrace it and have that drive us to actually be even better. We deserve to be there"
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