MEN'S TENNIS BLOG FOR APRIL 30, 2012
BY JUNIOR IBRAHIM SHAMS
PRE-SELECTION SHOW BLOG
With selection day almost here, excitement and curiosity are building up. The team is eager to find out whom we will be competing against in the NCAA tournament. As an unranked school, we will have to face one of the top 16 teams in the nation. There has been some speculation that our next opponent will be University of Virginia as they are in our region and are currently the fourth ranked team in the country. However, as for now I would like to reflect on one of the best weekends in the history of FDU tennis.
Prior to the NEC tournament, our eight match-winning streak was ended by Queens College in our last regular season game. Surprisingly this loss didn’t affect us, and we continued to carry the strong mentality we have had the entire season to the conference tournament. Going into the NECs as the number one seed and the favorites definitely put some pressure on the team. We had convincingly beaten all the NEC teams in the regular season and knew we had a big chance of capturing the title. Nevertheless, in the back of our minds we were aware that the circumstances were always different when it came to the actual tournament, as the last two years a team that we beat in the regular season eliminated us in the NEC tournament.
This year things were not the same, since the get-go I felt like we were a different team. With the majority of the team consisting of upper classmen we were definitely more mature, which showed in most of our matches. There was also a lot of passion and determination, not only in matches, but in practice as well.
Coach Ira always reminded us to stay positive and not let anything bother us, and I believe that this contributed tremendously to our success. Moreover, the high intensity and fire
Coach Buchman brought in paid dividends in close and tough matches. With all of these things put together, we were not going to let any obstacle hold us back, and that was the case as we were able to pull out a superb NEC tournament without dropping one match.
The title meant a lot to us, as we feel like our hard work and effort has finally paid off. In addition, it was great to see our seniors
Marco Jemersic and
Dom Hemy capture the NEC title before their departure, as they always played a crucial role in the team the last 4 years. As of now we will just have to keep working and practicing hard for the next two weeks in order to strongly prepare for the NCAA tournament.
