Sectionals for Club Tennis

This weekend, we attended Sectionals, a tournament hosted by the USTA (United States Tennis Association), where eighteen other club tennis teams were competing as well. Our first match began Saturday at 10 AM. We walked in a little early like most teams to register, but this being our first year as a club team, we quickly learned that we did not have the best reputation. We over heard many teams saying, ODU was expected to be the worst team at the tournament. We were however, convinced to prove them wrong. After a long day of competition we found ourselves in the top eight, which put us in the Gold Bracket going into day two. The remainder of the teams who had not been as successful were placed in the silver and bronze brackets. Our second match was against the number two seed, Virginia Tech, who we had beaten in the past. We found ourselves quite worn out and not playing our best as the match began. However, at the end of the match the overall score was tied dead even. A rare occurance at these tournaments. The officials decided to play a tiebreaker for the match. We lost 7-4 in the tiebreaker, a heartbreaking loss. Overall we finished seventh at sectionals, but as a team coming in with little to no expectations we were very pleased. We know that we could have done better, but there is always next year as well as the remainder of this season to prove ourselves!

This is Nathalia serving it up against UVA. Her doubles partner, me, as well as herself play number one for our club team. Unfortunately our luck had run out in this match as we fell to UVA with a loss of 8-3. Ironically both of us faced our high school rivals during this match. No matter how far away from home you go, it seems you can never escape your rivals.

These girls hold spots one through four for the girls on the Old Dominion Club Team. Our number one player starting on the right is Nathalia, following her at number two is myself, the number three position is help by Candance, and lastly our number four player is Felicia. We are the quiter half of the team compared to our boys but we get the job done!

slideshow

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34346692@N03/sets/72157613934934276/

Club Tennis

This weekend, the ODU Club Tennis team started off their season with a double-header vs the University of Virginia and William and Mary. UVA is well known for their infamous club team and left us feeling a little worried especially after our loss to them last fall. However, this time was different! Maybe it was our delicious pancake breakfast, our teammates cheering us on, or simply our practice paying off, but we managed to defeat one of the top teams in the state! It felt great to defeat a team that walked onto our home courts so confident that they played in pajama pants. This win was a big one for us definitely building our confidence for our upcoming sectionals tournament next weekend! Immediately following our match UVA went onto defeat W&M in a close match with an overall score of 24-17. Unfortunately when it was our turn to play against against W&M, perhaps it was the fact that will were still celebrating our victory over UVA, but we did lose to them! However, nothing could ruin our excitement for that day! Defeating UVA was a big task for us, and as our first match of the season we were very pleased and left very optimistic for the remainder of the season!

Carrie's Opinion on WCS

When speaking with Carrie Hopkins, a past member of the ODU Women's Club Soccer Team (WCS), she was able to tell me both the positive and negatives to soccer and club sports in general. She agreed that club sports are an excellent oppurtunity for students to participate in physical activities on campus, especially if they are unable or unwilling to play at the varsity level. She believed a major downside to WCS was that they did have to make cuts to the team, which she believed to only be a negative aspect to the team. Disregarding the negatives, she still had many wonderful things to add about club soccer at ODU. She thought they had wonderful practice schedules and a great ability to teach old and new comers the game. Overall, she seemed pleased that ODU offered so many club sports at ODU (around twenty) because it provides so many students with the oppurtunity to get out and become involved with other members of the student body.

Club Tennis

Two weeks ago the club tennis team began their season again with practices. After some time conflicts during the first week, we finally have our practice schedules down. Our next two weekend are going to be busy ones. On February 15th, we not only take on our toughest competition UVa, but immediately following the match we will play William and Mary as well. That following weekend, we will be traveling to compete against sixteen other university's club tennis teams in Maryland for the sectionals tournament. We can expect the competition to be tough, but we are very optimistic and going into it with a positive attitude!

Men's Varsity ODU Tennis Updates

This past weekend, the ODU men’s tennis team was busy with their three matches in a course of two days. Their weekend opened with a match on Friday afternoon against James Madison University. JMU traveled to play the Monarchs, but were left wondering if the drive was worth it after they lost to ODU in a score of 7-0. Following that match, Saturday morning, they took the court again to play a tough match against Elon University. The match lasted a little over four hours and came down to a tie match with the overall score of 3-3. The only match still on court was the number one player from both Universities. Aleksandr Seleznez, a senior at ODU, battled hard, going into a third set. He eventually lost, leaving the monarchs with a loss to Elon University with a final score of 3-4. However, after a short break, they once again took the court later that day in a competition against Howard University at five. Howard did not pose as a challenge to the Monarchs after they defeated them with a score of 7-0. Congratulations to their head coach Darryl Cummings, Assistant Coach Dominic Manilla, and the Volunteer Assistant Coach, John Brinkman on a great weekend for their team.

Responding to a related blog

Tessa Darrow, a junior at ODU, also plays a club sport which she blogs about. She is on the club team, and I found this information on her site:

"Last night was the first practice of the season for the ODU Lady’s Soccer Club Team. For all those who do not know, ODU has around 20 different sport clubs on campus. (This doesn’t include our 16 varsity sport teams.) I have been playing on this team since the fall season of my freshman year. Though, I have been playing soccer since I was able to walk. I am a middle fielder, but also enjoy playing stopper and full-back. Our club team is very similar to a high school team. We practice just about everyday and our team plays other college women’s club teams, including VT, W&M, UNCW, UR, etc. Either we travel to the various colleges for games, or they travel to ODU to play us on our home field. It is a lot of fun both ways. When we are not playing soccer, our team likes to have bonding time. We will have pasta dinners, sleepovers, and etc. Our girls make up a pretty close team, which helps us to play as a team."

I really liked this blog because I could relate it to our club tennis team. Our team is Co-Ed and fortunate enough to have both indoor and outdoor facilities to practice at to avoid the cold or soak up the sun rays! We often travel or have the same teams travel to us as the girls soccer team, all providing us with the exciting chance to show off our abilities and compete against other schools! We too have bonding time outside of practice, and sometimes we find ourselves having so much fun together, our practice time turns into us circling up in the center of the court just to chat for that ten minute break that sometimes turns into a rather extended break! Club teams at ODU really do offer all students a great oppurtunity to get involved and make some great friends while playing a sport they really enjoy!

To read more about Tessa Darrow's Club soccer experience, you can follow this link to her blog:

http://blogs.targetx.com/odu/TessaDarrow/2008/01/