Mizzou tennis is preparing for a new season, but this year’s team is bringing something different to Columbia.
Different accents. Different backgrounds. Different paths to the same place.
As the Tigers prepare to open their fall schedule at the Husker Invitational from Sept. 25-27, Mizzou’s rebuild under first-year head coach Robin Goodman has become more than a coaching change. It is a team pieced together from across the world.
Sophomore Alex Ackman remains the program’s lone returning player from
last season’s roster. Around her, Goodman and associate head coach Manny Raga have built something new.
Irina Anghel arrived in Columbia from Romania. Mariana Higuita Barraza came from Colombia. Raga, who joined Mizzou after previous stops at Oklahoma and Cowley College, brings an international perspective of his own from Venezuela. Goodman, meanwhile, arrived in Columbia from England.
For a program entering a new era, the Tigers’ roster is beginning to look like a collection of different tennis worlds meeting in one place.
That diversity could become one of Mizzou’s biggest strengths.
Tennis has always been an international sport, but chemistry is still one of the most important parts of building a college team. The Tigers will have to quickly learn how to turn different playing styles, cultures and experiences into one identity.
That process begins this fall.
The Husker Invitational will give Goodman his first opportunity to see his new team compete under the Mizzou banner. The Tigers will then travel to the Charlotte Invitational from Oct. 1-4 before continuing their fall schedule at the ITA Championships from Oct. 14-19.
The results will matter, but this fall might be about something bigger.
Mizzou is not simply trying to replace the players and coaches who left after last season. The Tigers are trying to create a new foundation.
Ackman represents the connection to what came before. Anghel and Higuita Barraza represent the future. Goodman and Raga are tasked with bringing those pieces together.
The rebuild is still young, and the roster is still learning what Mizzou tennis will look like under its new leadership.
But when the Tigers take the court in Nebraska in 10 days, the waiting finally ends.
It may have started thousands of miles away from Columbia.
But now, all those paths have led to the same court.
Columns and Courts will be back Wednesday with more Mizzou Tennis Coverage. Tiger Top Spin will return next Monday as the fall schedule gets closer and closer.
