Tennis team learns from experienced ITA field
Ocotober 01, 2008
Robert Jackson
Sports Editor
After the byes against Indiana Tech players, the UIS men’s tennis team encountered a pool of experienced, international players from different universities.
The team placed only one player, Diego Mayorga, in the semi-final round in singles while being eliminated from doubles competition on the first day in the quarterfinals.
“The international students in this tournament had a lot of experience,” Head Coach Manny Velasco said. “It’s hard to compete against experience. The kids from France they see this level of competition once a week in Europe, but we maybe see it once every two weeks.”
UIS faced players hailing from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean with players from France and other South American countries represented on Lindenwood’s, Olivet Nazarene’s, McKendree’s, and St. Francis’ rosters.
No losing UIS player managed to win a set against their Round of 16 opponent.
“I’m very pleased with what has happened,” Velasco said. “They’re learning from such high competition.”
UIS showed strong in the second day consolation bracket with freshman Matt McGowan taking sixth place and Pat Callahan reaching the semi-finals.
Mayorga emerged from the bottom half of the regular tournament bracket with two hard-earned wins against Michael Vargas and Martin Capdeviole both from Lindenwood.
In the semifinals Mayorga would face another player from international player from Lindenwood, 6’5” Kevin Bourdin from France.
Bourdin overwhelmed Mayorga in the first game of the semifinal match with his serve, eventually scoring the game point on an ace that Mayorga attempted to return, but wound up deflecting the ball onto the next court over about fifteen feet away.
“It was really difficult to be aggressive with his serve,” Mayorga said. “His first serve comes in very fast and his second serve has a lot of top spin and it bounces really high off the court.”
Bourdin would build an early 3-0 lead in the first set, most of the time content along the baseline slicing forehand shots to Mayorga.
“I had to be patient,” Bourdin said. “[Mayorga] likes when the guy hits the ball with force. That is how he beat my two teammates.”
Mayorga however would make a come back to tie the first set at 5-5.
“I just tried to make him move a little and attack him with my forehand,” Mayorga said.
Photo by David Clary |
Mayorga took a 6-5 lead on the strength of several forehand shots that forced Bourdin to return shots long and out-of-bounds. Bourdin would win the next game, forcing a seven point tiebreaker.
Bourdin would serve first and scored the first points of the tiebreaker. Bourdin then built a 4-1 lead after consecutive points after a service error by Mayorga. Mayorga, however, would battle back and land consecutive aces on Bourdin that set up a momentous game-tying fourth point scored by Mayorga.
Bourdin slammed the door on any comeback though when he charged the net on a soft return by Mayorga. Bourdin smashed the ball to the ground with an overhand swing, with the rebound of the ball hitting off the top of the back fence that walls the courts. Bourdin would go on to score the next three points in a row to win the tiebreak 7-4, and the first set 7-6.
Mayorga battled in the first game of the second set taking it to build an early 1-0 lead.
Bourdin altered his strategy in the second set by beginning to charge the net. The new ripple in his tactics, as well as Mayorga’s fatigue and forearm pain from competition the day before, resulted in Bourdin winning the next six games in a row to win the second set 6-1 and advance to the finals.
“[Mayorga’s] backhand is very short,” Bourdin said. “I had to go up to the net to win the point easily.”
Despite no UIS player advancing to the finals, Velasco remained proud of his team for the character they showed over Friday and Saturday.
“I am just so proud of my team,” He said. “They behaved well; they made good [officiating] calls; they did not give up. And they’re better than the day before for facing such high competition.”
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