JMU Tennis Fans
Two weeks ago (April 4-5), we played in the CAA Round Robin tournament which was vital for our seeding in the CAA tournament. The tournament was hosted by UNC Wilmington and we made the six-hour trip the day before it started so we could be fresh going into our doubleheader on Saturday. Our first opponent was the University of Delaware. Before the match we had discussed possible outcomes of the weekend, and felt as though we had a good chance against Delaware and Drexel with UNC Wilmington being our toughest opponents. If we beat Delaware we would have a good chance of securing the seed we were looking for going into the CAA tournament, so we knew that this was probably our most important match of the weekend. Though, things did not quite work out as planned. After we secured the doubles point, our singles play let us down. We were expecting to win at least three out of the six singles matches. Going into the match though we were short on practice, having only practiced on the Monday before Saturday’s match due to the inclement weather. We managed to get the match all square at three points apiece with the last match being the decider. It did not go our way this time as we lost it in a tough three-set match.
In our second match of the day we bounced back to defeat Drexel 6-1. This was a huge win for us after being upset earlier that day. We would need as much momentum going into our final match of the weekend against UNC Wilmington, which has been ranked as high as 71 in the nation. We were only able to pick up one win against them, which was thanks to an injury on their team, but everybody competed hard.
Since then we have only played against Radford who were tough opponents, ranked at 50 in the nation. This would end up being the final match of the regular season for our seniors Chris Armes and Brian Rubenstein with the match against George Washington being cancelled due to rain.
On behalf of the team I would like to say thanks to Brian and Chris for their efforts and commitment they have put into molding this team into what it is today. Brian with his explosive energy and intensity on the court really keeping everybody motivated at the toughest of times, and Chris for his work ethic and dry humor that leaves everyone rolling on the floor with stitches. Without these guys we would not be the team we are today and the up and coming freshman will have a tough time filling their shoes. All the best for what lays ahead guys!
As some of you may or may not know, tennis players are renowned for having superstitions both on and off the court. Some players are very open about their superstitions, like Brian for instance. At practice the door behind the court always has to be closed. If he wins a match everything has to be as close as possible in the next match as the previous – the side he sits on, if he serves or receives first even down to eating the same breakfast before a match. Mike Smith has a thing for red clothes, and wears really funky outfits on what he calls “casual Wednesday.” Ville has to get as much sleep as possible no matter where he is, or else he won’t be able to function. Yari, Tommi and I all have reminders on our shoes of what we are trying to achieve during our matches. Tommi’s reads “RIP IT” – which is a reminder for him to hit the ball as hard and with much spin as possible without missing, like his favorite player Rafael Nadal. Yari’s reads “Beat the net, beat the lines” – which means what it says, to give yourself a shot at winning every point you have to do the basics of tennis, hit the ball over the net between the lines. Mine reads “Can run for days” which came about during a match against George Mason where my opponent thought he could out run me, but ended up cramping and had to default the match. All of our shoes also read “212” which as Tommi explained in the earlier post, is a motivational video based on the fact that at 211 degrees water is hot, but at 212 degrees it’s boiling, and that extra effort to raise 1 degree is what will get you from good to great, the extra degree makes all the difference.
Up next on our schedule is the CAA conference tournament. We are seeded sixth and have drawn third-seeded William and Mary. This will be a tough match as William and Mary have been ranked in the top 50 in the nation at one or other time this season. We played them earlier in the year and lost 6-1. Yet the match was a lot closer then the score reads. Two matches went into third-set tiebreakers and the rest were all well contested. We lost the doubles point which has been our Achilles heel this season, with doubles being our strength in the previous seasons. We have been working to find some pairings that gel well together and have been training hard on improving our doubles skills to give ourselves the best possible shot at taking the doubles point, at the same time building a platform to work from in the years to come. It will take a huge effort to move into the semifinals of the tournament, and I can assure you that we will all grind out every match and push ourselves to the extra degree. 212 baby!
Take care
Jared Robinson
Dear JMU Tennis fans,
Our season has been pretty tough so far. We played the first 12 matches away and lost to the three toughest CAA rivals; VCU, ODU, and William & Mary, lost a few really close matches, struggled to challenge teams we should have challenged, and finally, after working hard, got two good wins before our first home matches. Our biggest problem so far has been not finding winning doubles teams. We dropped to 2-10, but now, after being undefeated at home, things are finally starting to look better (now 6-11). It's been awesome to play home matches in front of JMU tennis fans. After getting three important wins at home, we've gained confidence and energy to keep working hard. We've had a lot of new people come support us, but there are still empty seats for new JMU tennis fans! Our last home match of the season is against George Washington on Saturday, April 11 at 1 p.m. and it would be great to have the biggest crowd of the season behind us in that match!!!
For the last couple of weeks we have been able to practice outdoors, which has improved the quality of our practice and given us better chances to work on our weaknesses. Also, our strength coach, Callye, has made us work hard this season. It's starting to pay off, since all of the guys are in good shape, and we haven't given any free shots to our opponents because of not being fit. We've even done yoga, which has been really good balance to lifting weights!!! It's not only been great for us, but also, it's been pretty entertaining for everyone at the gym to watch us try to stretch to these crazy positions.
Since we've only played three home matches so far, we've had to travel a lot. We usually get a pretty decent bus, but there are also times when we have to fit into those white JMU vans. In these cases, there's always some arguing of who get the best seats, and who are the ones trying to squeeze into the backseat. In the bigger buses we have this silent mutual agreement on where everyone sits. For example, I'm sure that if I surprised Brian by sitting on “his” seat, I would be flying out of the window before I even knew. If there is a DVD-player in the bus, we like to watch a couple of movies on the road. After getting bored watching movies, some of the guys usually do the same thing drive-after-drive: Chris and Jared dive into their own world of techno music, Ville tends to sleep until we stop to eat, some of the guys argue about movies, sports, etc., and there is always someone who's crazy enough to start doing homework. The funniest thing on the road is definitely playing “Catch Phrase” with the whole team. Good laughs are always guaranteed as we, international guys, try to explain our phrases. Also, most of the guys get really competitive, which is very entertaining to watch.
For the last couple of seasons you might have heard our team screaming “212” in matches. That is a cool, inspirational idea from a motivational video called “212”. The idea is that it only takes just one extra degree at 211 to make water boil. Likewise, in sports, it often comes down to very little margins between winners and losers. So far, we haven't quite figured out how to turn up that extra degree, but after a tough start we have been playing a lot better lately. We still have three more weeks, five non-conference matches, and CAA Round Robin play at UNC Wilmington before our season's biggest goal; the CAA Championships on April 17-19 at ODU. That should be enough time to make our team stronger, find working doubles teams, and to turn up the heat from 211 to 212!
Take it easy everyone,
Tommi
PS. We beat Howard 7-0 on Sunday! Hope you can make it to our last home match. Go Dukes!!!
