Zoucha to compete at national meet

Forgive Rick Harley if he sounds a bit superstitious when he talks about Lexie Zoucha being a key component of the Nebraska Wesleyan women’s tennis team.

“We’re very happy to have Lexie as part of our team,” said Harley, the Prairie Wolves’ coach. “She appears to be our good-luck charm.”

The 2006 Fremont High School graduate has helped the Prairie Wolves qualify for the NAIA Women’s Tennis Championships the past two seasons. Wesleyan is scheduled to play Southern Nazarene University of Oklahoma in a first-round matchup Monday morning in Mobile, Ala. The winner will then face seventh-seeded Berry (Ga.) College.

“Things are going really well,” said Zoucha, who will play No. 5 singles for the Prairie Wolves. “Our goal as a team was to go to nationals again and we’re happy to have accomplished that.”

Wesleyan has compiled a 15-8 overall record, including 7-1 in the Great Plains Athletic Conference. The Prairie Wolves earned the ticket to nationals by winning the Region III Tournament last weekend in Fremont. Wesleyan downed Concordia 5-2 in the finals after avenging its only regular-season conference loss with a 5-1 win over Sioux Falls.

Zoucha has the second-most wins on the team with a 14-8 record and has earned the praise of Harley.

“Her main asset as a tennis player is her will to win and the aggressiveness of play,” he said. “She has excellent strokes off the baseline with good penetration.”

Zoucha, however, has had some obstacles to overcome. She suffered a torn labrum her senior year of high school before having surgery. When NWU started practice for 2007, the freshman was 14th on a 15-player roster, but she quickly moved her way up into the top six singles players.

She compiled a 10-7 record as a freshman while helping the Prairie Wolves qualify for nationals. Wesleyan suffered a 9-0 loss to Point Loma Nazarene from San Diego. Zoucha lost in straight sets to Samantha Reeve of the Sea Lions, but looked forward to her sophomore season.

Last fall, though, she hurt the shoulder again. She has learned to play through the pain and will get it repaired during the offseason.

“It has been tough,” she said. “But you learn to adapt. I can’t serve as hard as I want and you have to be cautious about how much power you put into your shots.”

Harley has been careful about how to use the Fremont native.

“Since she had shoulder surgery, we’ve only asked her to play singles the past two years but that may change next season,” Harley said.

Zoucha, though, is just focusing on finishing the 2008 season on a high note. Southern Nazarene, the Region IV representative, is rated 10th in the nation and defeated the Prairie Wolves 7-2 in an April 5 match in Newton, Kan.

Zoucha was trailing 5-2 in her match, but her opponent had to default. The Wesleyan sophomore said her team is looking forward to a rematch with Southern.

“I think it is definitely a good thing that we’re playing somebody we’ve already played,” she said. “Everybody will play pretty much the same person as before. We know we have a chance to win because we had quite a few close matches with them. If a couple go our way, we can definitely pull off the win.”

Zoucha has also proven to be up to challenges in the classroom. She carries a better than 3.7 GPA as a double major in Spanish and physics.

“It’s definitely time management and getting your priorities straight,” Zoucha said about balancing athletics and academics. “Our coaches are pretty flexible about practices and are understanding if you have a big test or a lot of homework.”

Harley thinks Zoucha has the potential to get even better on the court.

“The one aspect we’ve tried to get her to improve on at this point is her net play and willingness to come to the net,” he said. “She did do this to a better degree in her last match against Concordia with a very good result (a 6-2, 6-3 win in the Region III Tournament). If she incorporates this into her game, I believe she will continue to improve.”