BSU Student-Athlete Spotlight: Olivia Sweeney
A key player in the womens tennis win streak is graduate student Olivia Sweeney. During the win streak, Sweeney has been 6-1 in singles competition with the one loss coming against the Southern Maine Huskies on September 25th. She is also 7-0 in doubles competition, while being paired with Senior Vanessa Rosa. For the season, Sweeney currently is 8-2 on doubles and 7-3 on singles competition for the season so far.
I had the chance to talk to the student-athlete herself for this athlete-student spotlight, and here’s what she told me.
Sweeney has been on the women’s tennis team for four seasons dating back to 2017. She cites her interest in tennis dating back to her high school years, as to why she has stuck with the game. She said, “I started playing tennis my eighth-grade year at Taunton High, and played JV that whole first year. I had no prior experience but had lots of motivation, as I played soccer, and basketball competitively for years growing up. Tennis quickly became a huge interest of mine”. BSU women’s tennis head coach David Purpura, and assistant Ron Santacroce helped her grow her interest in Tennis. During her 4 years playing tennis at BSU, she has a 31-25 record in singles competition and 30-14 in doubles competition.
Sweeney’s goal, and the team as a whole for the season was to “simply to put our best effort forth and constantly improve our tennis skills each day–which I think we have done an amazing job at and are strengthening our games every day we step onto those courts.”
Before the streak the team was 2-2 with a 1-1 record in Little East Conference play, but they have improved with the winning streak.
The team was picked to be placed fourth in the LEC Pre-season poll, but they are currently second in the conference behind Rhode Island College, who is undefeated in the season. Sweeney commented to this, “I am incredibly proud of this team this year. We were picked to finish fourth in the LEC pre-season poll and we have all done a great job to prove that we can be even higher than that. We still have lots of tennis to play even though our season is slowly dwindling down. As of right now, we have only lost one LEC match and we are truly making a mark each match we play.”
Sweeney won the LEC Player of the week award for the weeks of September 27-October 4th, and October 4-11th. Freshman teammate Madeline Von Ruden, also won the LEC rookie of the week alongside Sweeney for the first week. Sweeney said, “As for myself, it obviously is rewarding to receive a recognition like such as it validates the hard work you are putting in, but I have always been more proud of the goals I make alongside my teammates.” Sweeney went on to add, “I also think our recolection reflects our current teammates as well. We all help push each other to improve each and every day.”
Sweeney and the BSU Women’s Tennis team will try to extend their streak to ten games, as they have three regular season matches left in the season against Salem State, Curry College and Plymouth State. Then, they will participate in the LEC womens tennis tournament, and try to win the conference.
