Tennis battles in the ITA

The men’s tennis team played in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Southeast Regional Tournament in Sumter, S.C. last weekend with high hopes to gauge where the team stood for this upcoming season.

“You know where your team is at after this tournament,” Head Coach Steve Barsby said.

The team was a little disappointed with its results.

“This tournament showed us that we still need to work on a few things for the upcoming season,” senior Jerome Leborgne said.

In the first day of singles, Leborgne, the No. 7 seed, beat his first round opponent in two sets 6-3, 6-3.

“My first round opponent was a good test for the rest of the tournament,” Leborgne said. “It gave me a good idea where my level was, and what strengths I could rely on.”

Junior Tyler Franks also defeated his first round opponent 7-6, 6-3.

“I think that’s what’s helping us out the most right now is our new assistant coach, Carlos Marques,” Franks said. “He has been very supportive, and has helped us tremendously on and off the court.”

Junior Kasper Konyves was defeated by Flagler College No.14 seed, Gino Ramirez, 6-0, 6-3. No. 9 seed, junior Johan Wadstein, fell to his first round opponent Gavin Davison from Francis Marion 7-5, 6-0.

Senior Leo Bernardes was also taken in the first round by USC Aiken’s Guilherme Destefani 6-3, 7-5. Sophomore Mario Cardenas was defeated by North Georgia College’s Matheus Guida 6-2, 6-1 in the Flight ‘B’ round of singles.

In doubles, Wadstein and Leborgne were defeated in their first-round match against Francis Marion’s Alex Caspari and Gavin Davison, 8-2.

“We need to be stronger, mentally. We are all good players, but we need to be great when the important points come,” Leborgne said.

The second day of the tournament was suspended due to severe weather after one single match and two doubles.

Franks played the only singles match of the day, but lost to Pedro Scocuglia of Armstrong Atlantic, 6-1, 6-0.

“We weren’t able to prepare as much as we would have liked, but we tried our best and fought our hardest,” Franks said.

Bernardes and junior Wictor Andersson took home two wins in doubles against Graham Battle and Houston Callaway of Lees-McRae College 9-8, and against North Georgia’s Matheus Guida and Mario Mesquita 8-4.

The duo went on to win five overall matches and took home the tournament championship, defeating Martin Harach and Gabriel Oliveira of Young Harris College 8-6.

Franks and Konyves lost in their first round of doubles to Rafael Ferla and Carlos Yanes of Limestone College.

“There’s always a need to improve on conditioning and strength,” Franks said. “I feel like the stronger and more conditioned we are, the more confidence we will have out on the court.”

Leborgne made it to finals but fell to the No.3 seed from Queens University, Christian Lee-Daigle, 6-0, 6-2.

The men’s tennis season will resume in the spring.

“I think that we are going to have a better team than last year if we keep working hard,” Leborgne said. “I expect the team to have a good chance to go to the nationals. That’s what we are going to fight for.”

Posted by Gabrielle.Carrier on Sep 29 2011. Filed under Lead stories, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.