Serving up victories in Texas

Two of Georgia College & State University’s best are competing for a national title right now.

At 3 a.m., early Wednesday morning, while most GC&SU students slept, Luiza Biktyakova and Mia Paavilainen were boarding a plane headed for Texas.

Two weeks ago, Biktyakova and Paavilainen won the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Mid-Atlantic Regional Tournament held in Wilson, N.C. Their tournament victory earned them a trip to the ITA National Tournament in Corpus Christi, Texas.

The most incredible variable about their run to the national championships is that this is both their first years playing for GC&SU. For Paavilainen, it’s her first year playing at the college level.

“I’ve never played for a college team before,” said Paavilainen. “It’s been real interesting and a lot of fun.”

Head Bobcat Tennis Coach Steve Barsby feels good about the young players’ success.

“It’s great to have two players come in and play well in their first year,” Barsby said. “It’s very positive, not only for them, but for the entire program.”

The team doesn’t have the experience that some of GC&SU’s other teams that had when they went to the ITA National Championship. Barsby doesn’t consider that to be a bad thing.

“It’s good that they don’t have too much experience,” Barsby said. “They don’t know the other teams. Before the match they’re not going to think ‘oh we’ve lost to them before, so we’re going to lose again.’ They can play the matches hard and with no fear.”

Biktyakova is originally from Tashkent, Uzbekistan and Paavilainen is from Akersberga, Sweden. Their communication on and off the court are key to good teamwork and good performances.

“There’s no real misunderstanding between us,” Paavilainen said. “We understand each other on the court just fine.”

“Tennis has its own language,” Biktyakova said.

Barsby feels that the connection between the two is unlike any he’s seen between two first time doubles partners.

“They’re one of the few teams that talks a lot during the match,” Barsby said. “They don’t just rely on their talent, but depend on each other to get better.”

Until the spring, this is the last competition that the GC&SU tennis team will compete in. There hasn’t been much practice this week, so the girls are relying on their past experiences to get themselves ready for the nationals.

“I think we’re quite prepared for this tournament,” Biktyakova said. “We’ve just had two tournaments to compete in. That’s the best practice.”

Barsby knows that as good as the duo is there is going to be a little nervousness.

“Women’s doubles is who is playing well at the time,” Barsby said. “Hopefully they’ll realize that they deserve to be there and that they weren’t just lucky or had a good day. They have a lot of potential and can win it all.”

They started play yesterday and will continue throughout the weekend.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 18 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