Women’s winning streak ends

The GC&SU Women’s Tennis team started the season off strong by defeating their first four opponents.

After defeating three teams (Georgia Southwestern State University, Fort Valley State University, and Newberry College) by impressive consecutive scores of 9-0 without losing a set, the Lady Bobcats dropped their first one this season- but then kept striking victories.

Last weekend, the latest Bobcat victim was the Lakers of Clayton College State University. GCSU won the match by a score of 6-3.

The players are confident, but know that the most difficult matches are still to come.

“Armstrong Atlantic State University is probably the best team we will play this season. They are tough,” said sophomore Sofia Intriago. “We are confident after these four wins and I think that in two weeks, after playing harder matches, we will have more rhythm and we will be playing even better.”

GCSU’s Tennis Head Coach Steve Barsby said he thinks the team is prepared to play the toughest conference matches this season.

“Two conference matches (against Augusta State University and Armstrong Atlantic State University) have already been cancelled this season due to rain,” Barsby said. “We have not played the most talented teams yet, but we are confident and I think we can achieve good results against the big teams as well.”

The Bobcats, currently ranked 14th in the nation, hope to keep improving their game in order to reach the Peach Belt Conference Tournament in their best shape.

“I think that all of us are playing pretty well,” said junior Jessica McKnight. “We have been focused, working really hard, and we have a great chemistry as a team.”

According to Intriago, the team’s biggest improvement from last season is their doubles game.

“Doubles can be the key of winning matches, and we are working hard on it. I think we all improved our doubles game, specially our third team,” Intriago said.

According to Barsby, the biggest concern this season is injuries.

“We only have six players for this season and if one of them gets injured and cannot play, we are in trouble,” Barsby said. “Some of our players are not even running sprints during practices in order to prevent injuries.”

The Bobcats’ dropped a tough match against Armstrong Atlantic State University last Wednesday their next challenge is a conference road match against Columbus State today at 2 p.m.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Mar 3 2006. 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