Senior Michelle Gigentri ended last year with an injury. As she enters her final season as a Screaming Eagle, she looks to have individual success as well as lead the women’s tennis team to a conference birth.

“Michelle is a real leader,” Head Coach Keely Porter said. “She was injured at the end of last year but she’s very hard working.”

Porter who is entering her 20^th season as head coach for the Screaming Eagles tennis team, has an overall winning record of 55 percent.

Gigentri who is the lone senior on the team said Porter is awesome, positive and only wants her girls to work their butts off because no matter what, she’ll be proud of them.

“She (Porter) helped me a lot freshmen year. When I came out, I would often get mad easily,” Gigentri said. “She helped me with my attitude and made me a better player.”

With the format change to tournament play last spring, the women didn’t advance to the conference tournament.

There are only five conference matches, and they have to win those.

With the format change combined with late season injuries to Gigentri and then senior Gretchen Cantwell, the team had little success at the end of their season.

“Cantwell being gone is a big hole to fill, but we have a few incoming freshmen that will step up,” Porter said.

A group of new freshmen are joining the team this spring and Porter has high hopes in regard to their success. They all came from great high school programs and simply need to adjust, Porter said.

Freshmen Morgan Coquerille is currently having a good season playing number three singles for the Eagles.

“She’s a very competitive athlete and is playing very well,” Porter said

To prepare for this season, the team did more conditioning and running in the offseason.

In addition, everyone seems very motivated and has a solid work ethic, according to Gingentri.

Being the sole senior, Gingentri is looked to as the leader and wants to do her best to help her teammates.

“I’m really excited about this season. I want to go to conference, but I want to help everybody out as well and make the team successful,” Gigentri said.

The Lady Eagles dropped their season opener to Division 1 Western Kentucky University in a 6-3 loss.

The next competition is Friday when the team plays Lindwood Univeristy at their venue at 5 p.m.