Hey everyone!

The week was just as simple as the title. We only had three practices last week because of the Peach Belt Tournament and the team needed some rest. On Monday and Tuesday we had time to catch up with our school work since finals are coming up. The practice on Wednesday was tough because it was the first hot day, but it was good in preparation for Nationals in Orlando.
Of course, we couldn't leave out the Treadmill on Thursday that was challenging to all of us. We finished up the week with the yearly Armstrong Atlantic State University Athletic Banquet. Some of my teammates received Awards for their outstanding achievements. Alisa won this year's Academic Award, Sona is the MVP, and Kathleen got the Coaches Award. It was nice to see the athletes all together and enjoying the dinner.
Even though the weekend was off, the team practiced together to prepare ourselves for the next tournament. 


Good luck with the finals!

Goooo Pirates!

After finishing up the regular season we went back to our January routine and focused on conditioning and weight lifting.  We trained hard for 3 days in order to prepare ourselves for the Peach Belt Conference Tournament.  Playing a tournament requires us to be very physically fit due to the fact that it requires us to play 3 matches in a row.  On Friday we traveled to Atlanta and while the guys played their first match we had a practice to prepare us for our first match the next morning.  After a good practice all the girls were adjusted to the new courts and surroundings and headed to the hotel to get ready for the awards banquet.  The whole team was dressed up nicely in their suits and dresses.  While we ate our dinners we received the awards.  Miss Novakova won ever possible award that a person could win in this event.  She swept the two most prestigous awards.  The player of the year award and freshman of the year award.  Martina, Alida, and myself also received awards for our singles and doubles performances.  We have all agreed that Martina was the most determined to recieve her award seeing as how she walked in a near sprint to the front of the room, even forgetting to get her picture taken. haha

The next day it was a struggle to wake up.  We had to wake up at 545 and warm up before the sun had risen.  We started our match at 8am and defeated USC Aiken 5-0.  Our next Semi-Final match conditionings were perfect.  The sun was shining and the air was perfect for playing tennis.  We competed against the host team, Clayton State.  We gave up one close doubles match at Number 3 and started singles up 2-1.  Fortunately we won 3 straight singles, bringing us to a 5-1 victory and a spot in the Peach Belt Conference Championships. 

Due to the prediction of rain on the Championship day we weren't able to find out our match time for the next day until 1015pm the night before.  The morning started off with a rain delay which pushed our match back by an hour.  While waiting for the courts to dry the coaches and officials made the decision to make a 45 minute drive to play the match on Indoor Courts.  With all the delays and unexpected match times it was important that we kept our bodies fueled with plenty of food throughout the day.  This meant after having our breakfast at 8am and our lunch at 10am we would end up eating our dinner at 3pm.  We started the match at 430 and had a little bit of a shocking starting going down 2-1 after doubles.  That was the first time we have been down after doubles this year.  We prepared ourselves for a fight in the singles matches.  We won 3 straight singles in 2 straight sets.  Then we lost 1 and it came down to 2 of the freshman and Kathleen won her match completing the day with a 5-3 win over Francis Marion. 

We are happy to have won the Peach Belt Conference Tournament for the 6th straight year.  Go Pirates!!!!!!    

On Saturday after the match against Lynn, the whole team was able to relax and have fun at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. Since the beginning of the semester we were all looking forward to this trip to Miami and having a great day at the tournament site. We were walking around, stopping by the players' lounge and then all of the sudden Martina B.'s eyes caught those of one of her favorite players, Rainer Schüttler. She was shy to make the first move and talk to him but with Alida's and my help, she got up the courage, walked over and had a little chat with him. After the talk, she became an even bigger fan and even went as far as to post him as her profile picture on facebook. haha Good job, Martina!!! At the end of the day in Miami we got to see the number 1-ranked doubles team in the world, the Bryan brothers.  They were playing against Martina's love, Schüttler and Tina's love, Nikolas Kiefer who is also a German native. Even though, we were cheering for the Germans, the Bryan brothers' game impressed us.

 

The first match after the loss during the South Florida trip was tough, but our comeback was successful. On Tuesday against Hawaii Pacific we were still struggling with our game a little bit, but at the end of the day we were able to record another win for the Lady Pirates.

 

On Wednesday we hit the road again to Alabama to play in the Blue-Gray Tennis Classic. The first day of the tournament was very "peculiar," as our coach from Britain would say. We travelled back and forth between the tournament site and hotel due to the bad weather. A tornado warning was announced in the morning so we started the match as early as possible.  However weren't able to finish it because the tornado warning went off.

Luckily, we already had five points and therefore we won the match and didn't need to finish it the next day.

On the second day of the tournament, we were prepared to face the University of West Florida, who are ranked top-10 ranked in Division II. We thought this win was a pretty impressive performance..... !!!!!

Both the women's and men's team played the finals against the hosting team AUM. Earlier in the season we played them at Armstrong and beat them easily, but this match at AUM was expected to be tougher since we lost to them the previous year.  Also competing at their home courts meant their supporters would be cheering loud.

After doubles we were up 2-1 and stayed strong through singles to finish the match with a final score of 5-1.  Memories of our championship win at Nationals came flooding back when we turned our attention to our guy's team battle.  The memories from the double victory of the men and women's team were present again when the guy's also clinched the Blue-Grey Classic.  Alida was again the one that set the match point for the tournament win as it happened last year at Nationals. " Ready to win the Nationals, girls?!?!!" J

We finally finished our regular season's matches with two 9-0 wins against Lander and North Georgia.

Now, we are definitely ready to rock the courts at the Peach Belt Conference Tournament next weekend in Atlanta.