The UA men’s tennis team kicks off the 2008 fall season today with two separate tournaments. UA head coach Tad Berkowitz will take senior Francois VanderMerwe, junior Pat Metham, sophomore David Humphreys and freshman John Hardin to Las Cruces, N.M., to play in the Aggie
Fall Invitational.
Meanwhile, UA assistant coach Tom Lloyd will travel with two players to Costa Mesa, Calif., to participate in the Costa Mesa Futures Tournament at the Costa Mesa Tennis Center.
“”I’m excited and positive about the upcoming season and looking forward to seeing the new players adjust to handling the tennis team as well as academics,”” Lloyd said.
This year is the first season the Wildcats sent three ranked players to the Intercollegiate Tennis Associate’s Top 100: junior Andres Arango (42) and sophomores Andres Carrasco (83) and Jay Goldman (87). But even so, the starters for the season are unknown at this point, Lloyd said.
This year’s team is predominately young, with VanderMerwe being the only senior, but youth isn’t a negative characteristic, Lloyd said. Rather than making changes to his game plan for success, he added, the Wildcats will continue to work hard regardless.
“”No changes,”” Lloyd said. “”Simply hard work ethics, making sure the guys are giving 110 percent, tough practices and just taking care of business, really.””
Lloyd emphasized that although the team travels and practices together, tennis is an extremely individual sport. Both players traveling to Costa Mesa will be competing in individual tournaments, as well as the players going to New Mexico. The individuality, however, is something the team worked on this summer.
There were no scheduled summer team practices, so the players returned home to see their families, rejuvenate and were expected to independently keep in shape to prepare themselves for the upcoming fall season.
“”The players are aware of this when they go home for the summer,”” Lloyd said.
But the summer has come and gone, and the fall season is now here. The main thing Lloyd is expecting to see in the Aggie Fall Invitational?
“”Two good teams play against one another,”” he said.
