Club Tennis Gears Up For Nationals
The Indiana University club tennis team has seen improvement among its members playing ability and is heading to Nationals this year in Surprise, Arizona. Last year the team wasn’t able to make the tournament as a result of other events during the same weekend. This year, the squad is confident because they have a solid line-up carried by their sophomores and juniors.
“We got the chance to play on a wild card, ” says Stephanie Kuzydym. The team is sending three women and five men to the tournament from April 14 to April 18, 2010. Last year, Duke University won the National Championship title. Overall, competition will be intense and the team is excited about the chance to compete at a higher level.
The club tennis team plays in a “world team tennis” format. This means one men’s singles, one women’s singles, one men’s doubles, one women’s doubles and one mixed doubles.
Usually during the season, they play an eight team pro-set (first to eight) or two sets depending on their court availability. On February 14th, the club team played in the first ever Big Ten Tournament for club tennis. Despite losses to Michigan and Purdue, IU ended up in the tiebreaker match against Purdue as the tournament was scored on the overall number of games won.
During the mixed doubles tiebreaker match, IU came down to the final point after not calling a ball that was not in bounds. The Hoosiers went on to lose that game but ended up defeating Iowa in a later match.
Despite several losses in the Big Ten Tournament, the IU club tennis team is gearing up for Nationals and looking to come away with several wins.