NGU tennis teams serving up a new season of play
Whitley Bras, Staff Writer
Photo Courtesy of North Greenville University
The Men’s and Women’s tennis teams just began their spring seasons on February 9. The Carolina Conference Championship will be held on April 19 to end the season. Both teams are looking to attend the Championship and make it to the finals. The teams are coached by Mark Smith who has been coaching at NGU for two years.
The Women’s team has seven players listed on the roster including Laura Brazuelo, Camille Duhan, Merit Morgan, Faith Moyers, Leilani Mullinax, Charleston Park and Fernanda Santos de Lucca. When asked about strengths the women’s team has, Smith said, “A strength for the women’s team is that even though they are small, they are extremely close and tight-knit when it comes to the relationships between them.”
After being asked what weaknesses the team has, he mentioned, that there were a few walk-ons so the experience and abilities of the players vary.
The men’s tennis team has nine players listed on their roster including Pierre-Olivier Bedard, Giacomo Garini, William Greaves, Yannis Moulod, Dion Nijboer, Grant Robinson, Austin Schlarb, Alejandro de la Torre and Edmundo Torres.
When talking about the men’s team, Smith said, “They are an extremely talented and experienced team but the team consists of many young players. There are no juniors and only two seniors and the rest of the team consists of freshman and sophomores.”
Both of the tennis teams had a small season in the fall with scrimmages and small tournaments. One of the tournaments includes the Conference Carolina Preseason tournament in Sumter.
The goal for both men’s and women’s team this season is to play in the conference championship and win, but if nothing else to make it to the semifinals. Smith said his goals for the teams are, “Let’s just get a little bit better today. Each day we try to improve and get better.”
Although winning is the goal for athletic teams, Smith puts a high emphasis on internal improvement as an individual, which he believes will help the overall improvement of the team.
When describing his coaching style, Smith says, “I try to look at where they can get better. Where each person can get better. I like to watch a lot of match play and then take little flaws that happen during the match and be able to come back and practice on that.”
Smith says that he uses a lot of positivity and encouragement when coaching in order to improve the team in a beneficial manner. He made an emphasis on how athletes are tougher on themselves more than their coaches so he believes in the power of positive thinking and coaching.
International students make up a large majority of both tennis teams. When describing the recruiting process, Smith says that he looks at videos, grades, standardized test scores and for international students he looks at the TOEFL meaning Test of English as a Foreign Language.
Athletes must score 70 percent on the test in order to play for the University. During the recruiting process, Smith also looks at the Universal Tennis Rating (UTR) which is based on a point system for wins and losses that rate the player’s ability.
Smith, along with the players, are ambitious about the potential for the current season. So, go out and support the North Greenville tennis teams. The schedules for the Men’s and Women’s teams can be found online on the North Greenville Athletics page.
