VARSITY ATHLETICS

February 29, 2008

Good Start Indoors, Looking Forward To The Great Outdoors...

By Junior No. 2 - Marta Worwag - Cleveland, Ohio

Last Friday, the men’s and women’s Case Western Reserve tennis team dominated Robert Morris University of Pennsylvania. I could not be more proud. In my history playing for this team, I don’t recall such a strong win. Not one of the girls broke down under the pressure. I want to see this kind of pattern continue! The truth is, Robert Morris was not very hard competition for us and there are a lot of universities in our conference that play at a much higher level. This being said, we cannot be content with where we are. We need to keep on working and improving our mental and physical strength, endurance and toughness. When I say this, I don’t mean that we didn’t work hard to win each one of those matches on Friday. Those outcomes were the result of Coach Dan Palmer’s rigorous physical fitness workouts, Coach Sebastian Glinzler’s technique and strategy training, and our own tennis backgrounds and inborn competitive nature.

Although the scores may not show it, I think the team as a whole felt like we didn’t bring out our best game. Personally, I didn’t feel like I was in control during the match and wasn’t very proud of my strokes. I felt hesitant and defensive instead of confident and aggressive, but I know that those feelings will only come with time and practice. Part of this insecurity may have to do with the courts themselves.

The Veale tennis courts are designed to be multipurpose. The tennis courts are actually also make-shift basketball and volleyball courts, and serve for track purposes as well. Consequently, there are many confusing lines on the court, the surface is not made out of any standard material, there is very little room behind the baseline, and when the sun comes out the ball disappears momentarily as it passes the plane of the windows. These factors make it difficult to practice and play because line calls are tricky, and the space and surface restrictions force us to change our strokes to adapt unnecessarily. What is even stranger is that we have one semi-normal court which better simulates a standard surface. However, we can never enjoy its luxury for long enough. Once we finally familiarize ourselves with the surface, we have to move on to a new drill, or play a different opponent on the other surface. The other surface is different in that it is smoother and causes the ball to slide significantly more when it bounces. Logically, this decreases the amount of time we have to hit the ball and to adapt we shorten our strokes. The problem is it’s not that easy to just shorten our strokes and adapt, so a lot of times we end up hitting the ball very late, or off the rim, or too early. I understand that Case Western Reserve historically enjoys challenging its students, but this extra brain exercise is really not necessary. I’m ready for the temperature to rise so we can start playing on the outdoor courts again!

Posted by: Creg Jantz February 29, 2008 09:25 AM | Category: Women's Tennis

Posted by: cnj4 (Creg Jantz) February 29, 2008 09:25 AM | Comments (1) | Trackback