The Marquette women's tennis team will look to improve its 3-8 record when it plays No. 44 Western Michigan Friday and No. 42 Michigan Saturday in Ann Arbor, Mich.

"Last weekend was the first time this semester that the girls had off," head coach Jody Bronson said. "So hopefully they show up physically and mentally prepared and come to practice this week ready to make a difference."

The Golden Eagles are coming off of a two-game losing streak against Indiana and Louisville. Despite the apparent team unity and support, the women were unable to capitalize on the opportunities given to them, according to Bronson.

Last season, Marquette was defeated at home by Western Michigan and Michigan by scores of 2-5 and 0-7, respectively.

"Our main focus for this weekend is improvement as a whole team," said sophomore Dominika Dabrowski. "We need to come together, step up our performance level and win."

"It would be great to have a day in between matches," Bronson said. "But a part of being in condition and the point of working as hard as you do in practices is to be ready to go back-to-back."

Because this year's squad is so young, Bronson has been stressing improvement over winning all season.

Bronson and assistant coach Raj Gill have been trying to help each girl on the team develop as a player and reach her full potential.

"The girls could be winning every match," Bronson said. "But if they're winning and still making the same mistakes, that's not making them better players."

With only nine matches left in the regular season before the Conference USA Tournament in April, the Golden Eagles' focus has turned to the quality of their performance.

"We just really want to follow through on what our coaches are telling us," Dabrowski said. "We all need to work on playing up to our potential."

"For the rest of our matches, the girls need to show up, be at their best and take advantage of the opportunities to put ourselves in a position to win," Bronson said. "Or at least to do very well."

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Mar. 10 2005.