SFU Tennis Club

The SFU Tennis Team wrapped up nationals  by defeating the University of Western Ontario on the final Saturday.  It was a bittersweet end to what was a fairly disappointing 3rd place finish.

On Thursday the team faced the 2 time defending champions University of Montreal in the tournament opener.  It was a very windy day, something most BC players rarely have to deal with and it was apparent that the team struggled with the conditions.  When it came down to it, the Montreal team were too strong for the SFU team to handle, winning 4 of 5 doubles matches and 5 of 6 singles.  The Carrabins defeated SFU 9-2 overall.

On Friday the team went up against their western rivals in the University of Alberta.  The SFU team had defeated Alberta on 3 consecutive occasions in this format, but all 3 scores were extremely close.  This time, Alberta got their revenge edging SFU 6-5 by taking 4 of the 6 singles matches.

On Saturday, the SFU team met the University of Western Ontario in the 3rd place game.  Western took an early 3-1 lead in the men’s and women’s doubles.  After taking the #1 and #3 men’s singles it appeared that Western was ready to take 3rd only needing 1 more match.  SFU though was able to win 2 supertiebreakers at #2 men’s singles and #3 women’s singles to tie it.  It came down to the final mixed doubles match played over webcast, and SFU threw out 2 of its graduating seniors to play it.  The SFU pair won 7-5, 6-3 to defeat Western 6-5 overall.  The same day, the University of Montreal won their 3rd consecutive national title by defeating the University of Alberta 7-4.

Results:

Day 3 score sheet 2011

Day 2 score sheet 2011

Day 1 score sheet 2011 (1)

The SFU Tennis team heads to nationals next week for the Canadian University and College National Championships.  This is the third consecutive year the team has qualified, and finished 2nd in 2009 and 2010 to the champion University of Montreal.  The team hopes that improved depth and experience will create a better result this year.  Their opponents will be the University of Alberta, University of Western Ontario and the University of Montreal.  This is a year end tournament for the 2010-2011 season, with 2 teams from the West and 2 teams from the East.

The format features combined men’s and women’s team play, with 11 matches played in each fixture.  Each team is made up of at least 5 men and 5 women.

Team veterans Camila Prado, Claudia Zhang, Desiree Lee, Greg Morris and Pavel Bloch hope to finish their university careers with a national title.  Others include 2nd year players Nachiket Datar and Dmitri Ryssev, and newcomers Jenny Hong, Liliana Stoiu, Kerstin Butzelaar, Sameera Jhamb, Miguel Mora and Derek Lau.

The tournament runs August 11-13 at York University in Toronto, stay tuned for updates.