Alabama Wheelchair Tennis Reflects on 2-4 Start Amid Self-Professed "Rebuild"

The University of Alabama wheelchair tennis team is coming off seven consecutive national championships.

But it is off to a 2-4 start to the 2023-2024 season.

The season began with the team going 0-2 at the San Diego State Tournament in mid-September, losing 3-0 to San Diego State and 2-1 to Auburn (with the lone point coming from freshman Martha Harris’s tiebreak singles victory).

“We learned a lot as a team. That was our first match together,” said first-year coach Tyler McKay. “Our whole goal going in was to gain experience, learn, try to improve, and, overall, I feel like we went and played hard and gave it our best shot, and it was a good starting off point for a program that is kind of in kind of a rebuild mode.”

The team is without three-time Tier 1 wheelchair tennis national champion Thomas Venos who graduated this past spring.

This year’s team has only two players (Harris and junior Max Barbier). It had three players the year before and seven players two years ago.

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The team rebounded to go 2-1 at the season’s second tournament, the Honey Stinger Open played at home. Alabama beat the University of Michigan 3-0 on Oct. 6 and again by the same score the next day. It lost 3-0 to the University of Houston in between.

Alabama beat the University of Houston 3-0 on Oct. 6 in the Honey Stinger Open played on its home campus. Junior Max Barbier pictured.

(photo courtesy of Alabama Adapted Athletics)

“I feel like it showed what we can be at our best” said Barbier. “Look, it’s going to be a rebuilding year. But, at the same time, we can still get some wins when we’re playing our best.”

Alabama beat the University of Houston 3-0 on Oct. 6 in the Honey Stinger Open played on its home campus. Freshman Martha Harris pictured.

(photo courtesy of Alabama Adapted Athletics)

Barbier noted the challenges of having a two-person team that presents no opportunities for substitutions during or in between matches but pointed out that the training they receive helps a lot with that.

Alabama’s most recent match was a 3-0 loss to Auburn at the ITA Cup in Rome, GA on Oct. 13, giving the Crimson Tide two early season 3-0 losses to Auburn.

Alabama and Auburn will meet twice more this season, at the Auburn Cup in Auburn in November and at the Physiolete Open at home in Tuscaloosa in February.

“I think that (experience) really gives us the opportunity to learn from the losses to Auburn and to figure out what they’re good at, what we’re good at, what they’re bad at, what we’re bad at, and take that and learn from it and try to turn that into a win later on in the season,” said Barbier.

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Both Barbier and McKay said they are not dwelling on the team’s record this season.

“You gotta get in the mindset where you can’t let it affect you,” said Barbier “You just have to take every win and every loss with a grain of salt, learn from it, and move on.”

“We’re at a place with this program where maybe our talent level with other universities is a little more even versus coming in with the upper hand for a lot of matches in the past,” said McKay. “So, looking forward, we’re looking to compete hard and give it our best shot every match, get better and better as a team and give it the best shot we can with the group we have.”