Look who beat SFA...

[Dwayne From Minden]

Tech Tennis Outlasts Stephen F. Austin
Posted Feb 2, 2003 15:40:18

Ruston – Different day, same story as Tech (2-1) used a three-set win, this time from sophomore Holly Ready, to clinch a 4-3 victory. Tech went up early over the Ladyjacks of Stephen F. Austin and held on for the victory.

With the match almost fully played out, the score sat at 3-3 with only one singles match remaining. Ready, who lost her first set, battled back to win the second set and finished with a 6-4 victory in the third set to put Tech above .500 on the season.

“Holly (Ready) did what she had to do,” head coach Greg Hearn said. “For her to come back with a 6-1 and 6-4 victory showed a lot of guts.”

On the day, Tech split the singles competition and used a 2-1 advantage in its three doubles matches to pull out the victory.

The Techsters’ top duo of Ready and Anabella Duque captured a hard fought 9-7 victory over the Ladyjack’s No. 1 squad of Gennan and Robin Houston.

The deciding doubles victory came from the dominating performance of Saharai Uriarte and Lauren Longbothom who shutout their opponents.

“Doubles did it for us again today,” Hearn said. “This time it was our number two team that really stepped up with a 8-0 victory that got us fired up.”

For the second day in a row both Uriarte and Duque picked up straight set singles’ victories with scores of 6-0, 6-0 and 6-1, 6-0 respectively.

“The fans were great this weekend,” Hearn said. “They were out for both games and helped us keep the momentum rolling.”

Singles
1. Saharai Uriarte (Tech) def. Robin Houston (SFA), 6-0, 6-0
2. Holly Ready (Tech) def. Gennan Houston (SFA), 3-6, 6-1, 6-4
3. Anabella Duque (Tech) def. Megan Langston (SFA), 6-1, 6-0
4. Christine Huynh (SFA) def. Morgan Majors (Tech), 6-1, 6-0
5. Emily Voss (SFA) def. Lauren Longbothom (Tech), 6-1, 6-1
6. Melissa Bass (SFA) def. Danielle Landry (Tech), 6-0. 6-0

Doubles
1. H. Ready/A Duque (Tech) def. R. Houston/G. Houston (SFA), 9-7
2. S. Uriarte/L Longbothom (Tech) def. M. Langston/M. Bass (SFA),8-0
3. E. Voss/C. Huynh (SFA) def. M. Majors/D. Landry (Tech), 8-2

[Soonerdawg]

Who wrote that article? Whoever it was, did an excellent job.

As I have stated before, I had no knowledge of how college tennis was played, and I'm just now learning. I admit that the only reason I originally became interested in the sport was becausen my 13 year old daughter is playing now. Now that I'm learning about what is going on, I'm becoming a genuine fan. Believe it or not, it makes for a great spectator sport.

Here are the things that make it a great spectator sport:

1. The format:

The format is set up that it combines the best of team sports with individual sports. There are nine matches played; six are singles and three are doubles. Each singles match counts won gives the team one point. The winner of two of the three doubles matches gets another point. In effect, the doubles matches are the tiebreaker if the singles are split. The pressure on the players to perform for the team grows and grows as the matches are settled.

2. The strategy:

Singles are set up such that the players on each team are ranked from one to six. This ranking is setup on a combination of ability and style of play. For example, the number one player will usually has a game plan of setting up shots for winners. The four, five and six players usually play a very deliberate game. Although the team is limited in how far they can drop down a player, there is strategy in which position you play each player, because a good number six, if they can dictate the style of game played, can defeat a number one player.

Doubles is a completely different animal. It is lightning quick, and if a player gets down, two or three games can be blown in a short time. The players usually know that the match is riding on their game, and it is a personal battle to stay focused as much as it is a battle against the other team.

3. The players:

Because tennis has an extreme mental aspect that only a person with great poise can succeed at the game. For that reason, perhaps without exception, all of the participants are great kids from good families that reared their children well. Sloppy thinking and poor work ethic prevent most athletes from getting to the college level.

I had the opportunity to have dinner with Tech’s team a couple of weeks ago. I can assure you that each girl is smart, has good manners, is a good conversationalist and is of good moral character. I don’t trust my kids with many people, but I would have no problem trusting them with any one of the members of Tech’s tennis team. They are a classy bunch.
We had a good crowd out for the matches this past weekend. These girls are working hard, and have responded well to their new coach. I hope that the support can continue to grow. These girls are wonderful ambassadors for our school. We need to let them know we appreciate them.

[dawg78]

Soonerdawg, I wasn't able to make the SFA or SHSU matches because my youngest daughter was playing in a Bi-District soccer game in San Antonio that weekend, however, I was at the MET on Friday to watch the UofH match. The girls fought hard. I'll reiterate what Greg had to say about Houston's doubles, they were lightning quick and attacked the net like no one I'd ever seen. It took our girls about 4-5 games into the match to realize that in order to compete they would have to change their stradegy, when adapting to Houston's play the matches became much more competitive. The last few games of each match went to deuce and created an extremely exciting finish to the doubles. You could actually detect the growth in our girls. Although the singles we lost 5-1 the matches were competitve with great points being played by all. This was a great match to watch. The unique thing about playing indoors is the deception it gives....although the ceilings are very high it appears to right on top of you and the area behind the base lines is actually considerably smaller. It was to the Cougars advantage playing there as they knew how to keep our girls hitting off the back walls as I said a good lob put you climbing the walls to hit it. This was a great learning experience for the girls. I fell in love with tennis just a few years ago as a spectator and a struggling 3.5 player, anyone with competive juices has to love tennis, half the battle is in the head. I wish all of you could have been there. The thing about playing indoors is that you are actually watching from the courts, although there are bleachers, you are literally right on te courts........it's better than box seats at the Davis Cup....kinda. I'll finish with this, The Lady Dawgs made us proud. The Cougars were a notch ahead in the talent category but our girls approached each match with such determination and confidence that each match was scrappy and competitive, so much that the Cougar coaches even noticed (I was able to spend some time with their asst.) Greg has got these girls playing with a never quit attitude and they are simply fun to watch. See you next weekend.