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Community
should take notice of tennis team climbing the ranks Amidst the manicured grounds of the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center, the men’s tennis team is quietly putting together one of the most solid seasons in a program rife with tradition. Not that anyone has noticed the 17-2 Frogs. No manufactured hype here, no glitzy PR campaign, no full-page ads. They have a legimitate chance to claim the NCAA singles title (senior Esteban Carril) and the Western Athletic Conference title. The No. 2 men’s tennis team finds itself competing not to squeak into the NCAA Tournament but for a top seed. This group of Frogs is playing for the NCAA title. And they can win it. To borrow a line from the PGA, these guys are good. In a rematch of last year’s Western Athletic Conference final, the Frogs will put their perfect home record on the line against No. 8 Southern Methodist at 2:30 today at the tennis center. It will be college tennis at its finest. Fort Worth, TCU, take notice. When the WAC Championships begin April 27 in Fresno, Calif., TCU’s six seniors will be playing for their third WAC title in four years. Only SMU’s 1999 championship separates the seniors from a clean sweep. Expect them not to have forgotten that. “SMU is one of the teams we hate,” senior Scott Eddins said. “We need to keep doing the things that got us to this point.” The Frogs have won consecutive matches against the Mustangs, both at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center. During the last encounter between the two, the Frogs won the WAC title, 4-3. Previously, the Mustangs had won three straight. As with lions and hyenas, the two rivals seem to bring out the best in each other. TCU claimed two 4-3 victories last season, with both matches hotly contested to the final point. Last year’s WAC title match lasted four hours, with four singles matches going the full three sets and seven sets needing tiebreakers. After losing the doubles point, TCU rallied to claim four singles victories. Darkness and rain forced the final match, between senior Petr Koula and Alexis Rudzinski, to the indoor courts. Koula survived a two-set rally and won 7-5, 6-7, 7-5. Both teams enter the match on winning streaks. The Mustangs have won seven straight, while a 5-2 victory over Tulsa Saturday gave the Frogs their eighth straight win. The Mustangs return four players from last year’s team, including No. 6 Genius Chidzikwe. Playing No. 1 singles, Chidzikwe opened the 2001 season as the top-ranked singles player in the nation. During the fall, he won the Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-American Tournament, one of the four college Grand Slams. But the Frogs are stronger this year. TCU counts three nationally ranked players (No. 4 Carril, No. 54 Trace Fielding and No. 72 Antonio Gordon) and two more who play as if they should be. One opposing coach said of Carril: “He’s the best player in the nation when he wants to be.” The tennis world has taken note of the Frogs. It’s time the TCU community did the same.
Matt Stiver is a senior news-editorial journalism and history
major from Fort Worth. |