Lee, seniors lead the Bobcats to 4th place

The Bobcats grabbed a 4th place finish in the Peach Belt Conference tournament with a win against third seed and conference rival Francis Marion University in the first round. The Men’s tennis team went into the tournament focused on their close loss to Francis Marion University in the regular season and most importantly, the loss of their seniors.

“I’m just really happy, enjoying the last few matches of my college career,” said Mariano Cebrian, a senior on the team. “I just love the experience.”

Mariano and others on the tennis team said they enjoyed their last tennis matches last week after finishing 4th place overall, and now awaiting an at-large national bid.

Before the conference tournament Head Coach Steve Barsby said the team had a pretty good chance to make it to the NCAA regional tournament.

“We’re gonna have to go 2-1 at the tournament to get into the national tournament,” Barsby said. “If we do that, we pretty much lock ourselves into it.”

However, the Bobcats went 1-2 at the tournament and will still wait for an at-large bid from the NCAA National Tournament Committee.

Regardless of receiving a national bid for the NCAA tournament, the Bobcats have accomplished some amazing feats this year. With injuries to Rodrigo Yamauti, the player slotted to be No. 1 on the team, and Erick Siqueira, slotted at one time as the No. 2 player, the Bobcats responded from stretches of three, two and six losses to win their last three matches against then ranked USC Aiken and No. 24 Anderson University.

About these two wins against ranked opponents, Coach Barsby said, “We just took it to them, and the guys stepped up big time.”

In spite of the injuries, the Bobcats were able to control their own destiny and enter the conference tournament, making their presence felt with a 5-3 win over third seed Francis Marion.

Despite their fall in the tournament, the Bobcats have had an impressive showing all year long, including the rise of All-American senior Brandon Lee.

“There are 2,000 players in college (Division II) tennis, and Brandon right now is ranked maybe No. 17 in the country, so that’s a real nice thing to have,” said Barsby.

The play of his fellow seniors is important as well to Coach Barsby, as the season comes to an end and elimination tournaments approach.

“We have four seniors and you always want your seniors to have the best years they’ve had and even though they’ve had to play higher than they’re used to playing (in ranking against other teams), they’ve all played well.”

Looking back on the season, Barsby was focused on going to the NCAA National Tournament and said sometimes it doesn’t feel like the team achieved what it wanted if it doesn’t get a national bid, but he said that the guys worked really hard.

“We lost a couple of guys to injuries,” Barsby said. “The guys have battled and got themselves in a position where it (was) in our own hands to get in.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Apr 21 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