Tennis training for season

Pre-season tournament gives team early test

By Kate Shoaf | gargoyle@flagler.edu
Photo by Mary Elizabeth Fair

PHOTO CAPTION: The women’s tennis team has been practicing in anticipation for what they hope will be a successful season. Tournaments like the Wilson/Intercollegiate South Regional Flagler played earlier this month are a great preparation.

Women’s tennis has begun warming up for their season after participating in the 2008 Wilson/Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s South Regional at the Beerman Tennis Complex at Florida Southern College. Other schools that participated in this event were Florida Southern College, University of West Florida, Nova Southeastern University, Valdosta State University, Lynn University, Barry University, Palm Beach Atlantic University, Saint Leo University, Rollins College, University of Montevallo and Florida Tech.

In this pre-season meeting the players had a chance to practice in a game atmosphere and were able to check out their future competition.

Fernanda Ospina and Veronica Figueroa advanced to the semifinal round in doubles. The duo beat out Rollins College in their first match, and then defeated Saint Leo in the second. They advanced to the semifinal round and won against Nova Southeastern University, claiming the back draw title for Flagler College.

Chelsi de Cuba and Figueroa both advanced to the Round of 32. De Cuba had a bye in the Round of 128 and won against University of Montevallo. She lost in the Round of 32 to a player from Nova Southeastern University.

Chelsi de Cuba said, “I’m excited about the season because we have a lot of great new players and I think we will see an improvement in how we perform this season.”

Deon Miller won the first round for singles against Saint Leo and lost the second round against Lynn University.

“I’m excited for the season and I think our team will do better than last year. I’m also excited about the new teams we get to play, we’re going to be traveling a lot more this year.”

Miller also said that based on their encounter at Regionals and judging from previous seasons, the team feels its biggest competition will be Lynn University or Barry University.

Because of the recent addition to the NCAA, the women’s tennis team is only allowed 45 official pre-season practices. This means the women can only practice Monday through Thursday until the season starts in January. But because of their dedication the team regularly meets on Fridays, unsupervised by coaches, to hit the ball around and work on their skills.