New recruits have great promise

The new tennis players of Georgia College & State University bring youth and a certain level of experience to the 2002-2003 Bobcats.

The men’s team is starting to mature and turn into the most experienced team in the conference. The team is led by four juniors who all started playing at GC&SU as freshmen.

The new men to the team are continuing the tradition of building an experienced and well-rounded team from within. Freshmen David Cooper, Lance Grisham and Brandon Lee will watch and learn from the experienced players until they take the reigns of the team in the near future.

Cooper won the regional championship and was named the Most Valuable Player twice at Hart County High School in Hartwell, Ga. He was a regional semi-finalist in 2000 and a finalist in 1999 and 2001. While attending high school, he was also named Scholar Athlete of the Year twice.

Grisham joins the Bobcats after graduating from McEachern High School in Powder Springs, Ga. Grisham chose GC&SU for its competitive tennis program and location.

Lee graduated from Lakeside High School in Dekalb, Ga. There he was named Player of the Year and the Most Valuable Player. He was also a recipient of the Viking Award.

“Brandon Lee could be a great player for us,” said Head Tennis Coach Steve Barsby. “He’s had okay tournaments, but you could tell a little bit of freshman mistakes and errors. He still needs to work on his singles a bit, but he’s got the game in doubles. A little better play, more intensity, he could be one of the best doubles players in the conference. But he is going to have to work at it.”

The women’s team is also without the experience of any seniors this year. The team is very capable and has proven themselves already early in this season.

Sophomore Luiza Biktyakova, freshmen Caroline Lefevre, Kelly Miller and Mia Paavilainen look to add a youthful approach as well as some experience to the already very talented women’s team.

The girls all come from good high school or Junior College programs. At these schools, they developed into great players with lots of experience.

“I was a little worried this year,” said Barsby. We have a bunch of new
girls and also a bunch of high quality new girls. It is a lot easier for someone to come in at the bottom of the line-up. They come in and be quiet. But when you have girls playing near the top, some of the older players might not like that, but it has been great. Everything has worked out.”

Lefevre comes to GC&SU from La Baule, France (University of Sports). She has heard of the team’s tremendous reputation in tennis and wanted to be a part of the school. She has performed better than expected in her first few tournaments.

“She’s played well,” said Barsby. “She had a long match that took a little steam out of her, but she had a great weekend for her first ever college tournament.”

Miller graduated from Eagles Landing Christian Academy in Jonesboro. Miller chose GC&SU, because she liked the campus and the positive feedback heard from fellow students. During high school she competed in the state tournament three times.

Paavilainen comes to GC&SU from Akersberga, Sweden where she attended the Adalsskolan School. While in high school, she defeated the ninth ranked player in Sweden. One of the more important reasons why Paavilainen came to GC&SU was because of the vastly growing reputation of Barsby and the school’s recent success.

“I decided to come here last year,” said Paavilainen. “One of my best friends plays here and she told me about the coach, school and everything. It was the right thing to do. I really like it here. They don’t pressure you, but give a lot of support and that is really important. They are always helping me and showing me what to do.”

Biktyakova is the younger sister of Lillia Biktyakova. Lillia was a four-time All-American for GC&SU until she graduated in 2001. Luiza joins the Bobcats after transferring from Abraham Baldwin Agriculture College in Tifton, Ga. There she earned All-America honors twice and was named the Most Valuable Player in 2002. Luiza graduated from Tashkent School in Uzbekistan. She competed in the Federation Cup from 1997-2000, won the Republic Championship for three consecutive years (1998-2000), and also played in numerous international tournaments.

Luiza would love to follow the success to her sister, but does not want to live in her shadow.

“She did a good job,” said Luiza. “I think I should follow her and I want
to do as best as I can but I do not want to compete with her, I just want to do a good job. I want to achieve. I want to be the best that I can be and to win as many matches as possible.”

Barsby also sees Luiza as a new leader for the team.

“I think one of the leaders who I was really impressed with was Luiza,” said Barsby. “She sort of talked to the girls and went back and forth with them. Luiza has played junior college for two years. She’s been in the heat, she’s played in the national championship with ABAC, she’s got a little more experience, her play sort of makes her a leader.”

With all the different nationalities and cultures, there is always a fear that the team may not get along or understand each other. Barsby considers himself to be self fortunate that he has found such a great group of people that have personalities that don’t clash.

“On both teams, I’ve been very lucky my three years here to not only have good players, and guys who work hard, but people who get along,” said Barsby. “We haven’t had any problems, so far.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 11 2002. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry