Men’s tennis travels to Louisville Classic
October 8, 2008
After struggling to find a win in its last tournament, the SIU’s men’s tennis team will look to rebound at the Louisville Classic this weekend.
Head coach Dann Nelson said the main theme in practice this week has been remaining positive while maintaining personal expectations.
The Salukis have struggled to find success so far this season and only one player, sophomore Sebastian Rubiano, has advanced to the quarterfinals this season. No player advanced past the first round of the Salukis’ last tournament at the Intercollege Tennis Association All-American Challenge.
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“We’ve worked a lot on being positive in our matches and not being negative,” Nelson said. “Everybody on the team has high expectations of themselves, and sometimes they get a little down on themselves and get a little negative.”
The Salukis will send three players, senior Hugo Vidal, Rubiano and freshman Eric West to the tournament.
All three plan to compete in singles, while Vidal and Rubiano are set to participate in the doubles tournament as well.
Nelson said he expects at least one athlete to make it through the tournament to its last day Sunday.
Vidal said he wants to improve from the last tournament and he has to be aggressive to do so.
“I want to be more aggressive and go to the net more,” Vidal said. “I really just need to be positive and have a good attitude on the court. I have to serve very well and I hope I can win the first two or three rounds.”
SIU will compete against 17 other teams, including two of the top 50 teams in the nation in No. 40 Kentucky and No. 48 Louisville, in the tournament.
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“Normally, this is a tough tournament with regional teams,” Nelson said. “People come up from Tennessee, down from Indiana. There are going to be some really good teams there.”
But the athletes are still upbeat.
West said he expects the team to play well at Louisville, but is taking it one match at a time.
“I expect us to do pretty well,” West said. “We’ve been practicing hard and playing a lot of tennis. I just need to stay focused on the court. I want to find my opponents weakness and exploit it.”
Nelson said there are a number of things the team will have to improve to be successful at Louisville.
“We just need to play tough,” Nelson said. “We need to hold our serve and have a high first serve percentage. The one thing we’re going to be working on this week in practice is pulling the trigger faster.”
Stile Smith can be reached at
536-3311 ext. 282 or [email protected].
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