2015 Net News - March 5
3/5/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
What a weekend we had last Friday and Sunday. Much anticipation for the SEC season to get underway and also a doubleheader on tap, which turned out to be rather interesting.
We had a nice home crowd indoors on a chilly Friday night as the Bulldogs traveled over from Starkville. Having just played them a week before in a 4-3 battle we looked to avenge that loss. Doubles was close once again and produced similar results. We took control on court 1 early and held serve the whole way to win 6-4. Like at Blue Gray, we were broken at No. 3 at 4-5 to drop that contest. And then at No. 2 we traded breaks and ultimately Mississippi State converted down the stretch to clinch the doubles point with a 7-5 victory.
So we were down a slim 1-0 heading into singles and each match seemed to be a slugfest. Big serves, groundstrokes, overheads and "Come ons!" ignited the building, players and crowd. The Crimson Racket Club hospitality room was packed as members got their fill of food and drink between games.
We had four first sets go to tiebreakers and unfortunately only one, Nikko's match, went our way. That was okay, however, as we would just continue to fight the best we could. Stuart evened his match at a set a piece and the momentum seemed to shift. The Bulldogs, however, were the better team that night as the young Bama squad did their best to claw their way ahead of their opponents. I felt our team performed better than a week prior even though the score was different. Mississippi State was better in this match, and it gave us a bigger challenge than at Blue Gray. We were right there again and the post-match message to the team was to keep believing. I was very proud of the guys' efforts, and I know they gave it all they could. Back to work on Saturday to prepare for a Sunday twin bill.
Non-conference foes, Jackson State and Jacksonville State, rolled into Tuscaloosa on a cloudy Sunday. It was important for me to get all the guys playing given some of our matches had not fully completed this season. Well the Tide players certainly got to play ... all day and into the night.
Like a spring training baseball game, we ran a split squad doubleheader. Both Jackson State and Jacksonville State split their squad in half in order to create two teams for each school. We did the same on our end, and it resulted in two dual matches being played at the same time and we did this three times during the day. So we came away with six hard earned wins. The guys were excited to not only register a W or two but also to take a deep sigh of relief as we had been working so hard and coming away with a stocking full of coal. Once again the team improved as it was quite the challenge for each player to play three matches in succession (although we did allow players to take a short break between series 2 & 3.
Now onto Fayetteville and the SEC conference continues. We moved our match to 3 p.m. CST due to the weather in the morning. The Razorbacks are tough at home and this week we will play them indoors. It will be chilly in Fayetteville. After our rare Thursday match we will return home and host the Rebels of Ole Miss at 1 p.m. Saturday followed by the Hornets of Alabama State at 5 p.m. Saturday is USTA Kids Day, and we will provide FREE food, face painting and tennis of course. It's also Summer Camper reunion. The first 40 Bama summer campers over the past two years that come to our match will also receive a FREE Nike duffel bag courtesy of US Sports Camps. Not a bad deal.
So we're back out there with one thing in mind - fight and believe. I have seen this team improve so much the last couple of weeks, but nobody "owes" us. We owe it to ourselves to put our best foot forward each time. Congrats to Stuart for wearing the black shirt this week, and here's to taking care of the Hogs. Hope to see you this Saturday.
Roll Tide, George
