Tennis season is in full swing

     The sound of a ball cracking as it is swatted by a racquet followed by a loud grunt coming from the Centennial Center tennis courts can only mean one thing: Tennis season has begun.
     The GCSU men’s and women’s squad enter this season nationally ranked and with high expectations.
     “With the men, the goal is always to win (the conference),” head coach Steve Barsby said. “With the women, we’re good, we can easily compete in the top five or six in the country, but it’s a tough conference.”
     The Peach Belt Conference (PBC) is an elite conference in men’s and women’s tennis, claiming eight of the top 40 teams in the nation in both categories.
     The PBC alone gives each team an intense schedul., That, coupled with a late-March invitational tournament, hosted by the University of West Florida in Pensacola, where many of the nations elite programs compete, will show both squads exactly where they stand nationally.
     “It’s great to have a schedule like that, you know, we are going in as the fifth ranked team in the conference and we’re No. 21 in the country, that says a lot right there and then we play some of the best teams in the Pensacola Tournament, plus Valdosta State who won it all for the men’s last year,” Barsby said. “You really know how good a team you are.”
     The Bobcats and No. 9 Lady Bobcats have begun the season on a tear each starting off 3-0, highlighted by the women blanking UNC-Pembroke 9-0 and the men demolishing No. 38 Mount Olive 9-0 last Saturday.
     The men look to sophomore Erick Siqueiro and senior Rodrigo Yamauti to lead the team.
     “Having two guys like them at the top of the lineup is great, they are the two main guys,” said Barsby.
     Siqueiro returns to the No. 1 slot for the Bobcats, after sitting out last season with an injury.
     “I think expectations are pretty good,” Siqueiro said. “Last year, I got injured but I’m jus glad to be back out there now. I think, as a team, we’re playing better than we have before.”
Yamauti and Siqueiro are also doubles partners, where they are ranked No. 20 in Division II.
     “Me and Erick have a good connection since we started playing together,” Yamauti said.
     A pair of seniors take the reigns to lead the Lady Bobcats.
Celine Martin claims the number-one position, where she is currently ranked No. 14 in the nation, and Anna Davidson will also be an integral part of the team.
     “(Martin and Davidson) are both playing real well right now,” Barsby said. “The women’s team is really deep if we can compete and play hard in every match, we’re going to win a lot of matches. It’s just a matter of at the end of the year where we fall.”   
     Both squads are in action at home this weekend, hosting Newberry on Friday and Shorter on Saturday.
     “It looks like it should be a fun season. I think the men are young, but on paper they are very talented and we just want to get out there and see what we can do. We know the women are very deep, and we have a lot of good players and it looks like we should be able to compete nationally and in the conference,” said Barsby.   

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 16 2007. 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