MU club tennis places 26th at nationals

The Tigers played in the Silver Bracket after a 2-1 first round.

By Brian Haenchen

Published April 23, 2010

Missouri's club tennis team finished 26th out of 64 teams at the United States Tennis Association's National Campus Championship in Surprise, Ariz., last weekend.

The national championship featured the top 64 teams from across the country. A series of round robin games were played among pools of four teams to determine to which bracket each squad would advance.

There was a higher level of intensity than seen earlier in the season as each team looked to win its pool as an opportunity to compete for the championship.

"I could definitely see (more intensity from teams)," sophomore Zach Merkle said. "Especially when compared to just a straight dual match that we play on campus. Those are pretty laid back, where as nationals was even a step up from sectionals, which was pretty intense."

After getting by Texas State and Oregon State with relative ease, Missouri met its match in Maryland. The loss to the Terrapins in their final match of day one moved the Tigers into the Silver Bracket.

Although they would have enjoyed the opportunity to compete for the national title, finishing pool play at 2-1 put the Tigers right on track to accomplish a goal.

"I looked at it before we got there, and I figured if we would have gotten into the top 25, I would have been extremely happy because we've never done this before," sophomore Doug Brightfield said. "We knew we'd have to go 2-1 in the group to even have a shot at the top 25."

After losing its first match against Alabama, Missouri went on to beat Florida Gulf Coast and New Mexico, before losing to Texas in the match for 25th place.

The late addition of a few extra players helped the Tigers stay fresh despite having played six matches in two days.

"(Fatigue) definitely took its toll on the third day," senior Drew Brightfield said. "I think the first day, we were all just so focused and so excited to be there, that we just kept pushing ourselves further. (On) the second day, (though), people woke up a little more sore than they expected to be. But we had such good depth on our team because we put on a couple extra players that if somebody wasn't feeling well or was tired, we could swap them out."

The higher skilled teams at nationals compounded the issue of fatigue heading into bracket play. With the top three teams from each sectional advancing to the national tournament, not much separated the teams in one bracket from the other in terms of skill.

"I'd say the skill level all around was generally pretty even," Drew Brightfield said. "It really was just a single player or two that often made the difference between a great team and just a good team. What separated us from the No. 1 or 2 team was (they had) one player who could just make a couple extra shots that someone on our team couldn't do quite yet, or someone on the other team was just in better shape than someone on our team."

After essentially rebuilding Missouri's club tennis team and getting it involved with the USTA's Tennis on Campus program, the trip to nationals was an extremely rewarding experience for sophomore team President Lily Masoumy.

"I am so proud of my team and it is so rewarding to see all the hard work we put in pay off," Masoumy said. "My goal was to create a competitive team that would succeed in tournaments and have fun while doing it and after a year, we accomplished just that."