Observations after watching my first college conference tennis tournament:
1. College tennis is nothing like professional tennis--lots of yelling, coaching, movement of fans, and fun
2. No subbing for injury or bad day on the court--you start, you finish--not like other team sports
3. It is tense trying to keep track of singles on 6 courts at the same time to see if your are leading or behind in the team scoring
4. Clutch play coming from behind by Valentina Starkova on Saturday to keep us in the tournament
5. Clutch play coming from behind by Irina Paraschiv today to close out the championship today for the Mean Green
6. Congratulations to Paula Dinuta for being nameed the MVP of the tournament--if I remember correctly she won all her doubles and singles matches---very steady to keep us up in each match
7. Felt good to have 3 seniors on the court in the final three matches today--felt like they could battle in the matches to the end--as they needed to
8. The doubles point is very important and we seem to be the masters of starting off with a point from the doubles round
9. FIU had been to the finals the last 8 years--they beat us in the semis last year and we beat them in the finals for the championship in 2010---has become a big rivalry
10. It helps to have former basketball great Kenneth Lyons behind your court leading the cheers and motivating you--come back anytime Kenneth!
11. Coach Lama and Coach Maren have done as great job with these girls, as has Coach Troy--I believe our fitness wins several of those third set matches
There were lots of fans in green out this week rooting for the girls and the home court advantage certainly came into play at critical times. If you ever get a chance, come out to the matches. You will be surprised at how much you will enjoy it.
So, congratulations Kseniya (Fr), Paula (Sr), Nadia (Sr), Irina (Sr), Illona (Jr), Franziska (Fr), Valentina (Jr) and Barbora (Jr). All of you played a big part in the team victory, so.........
ON TO REGIONALS....GO MEAN GREEN!
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