KSU Club Tennis has a lot confidence for the 2012 fall semester and academic year, planning to make huge strides and hosting their first tournament at Kennesaw Mountain High school Oct 6.
The United States Tennis Association Kennesaw Fall Invitational will be held the weekend of Oct. 6 and consist of 12 teams. This will be the club’s first tournament as host. Like all tournaments club tennis competes in, match play will consist of the College World Team Tennis format.
As far as expectations go for Josh Bramblett, the current president for KSU club tennis, hosting a tournament for Kennesaw is just the beginning for what he envisions for this year. He hopes to not only win the Fall Invitational, but also see club tennis win more tournaments and make a run to Nationals in the spring. According to Bramblett, going to Nationals is his number one goal.
“I really want to go to Nationals and I want everyone to have fun,” Bramblett said.
Bramblett is convinced this is the year club tennis will go to Nationals, which was the reasoning behind his decision to take the position as KSU club tennis president.
“If I wasn’t confident, I don’t think I would have taken the job as president,” Bramblett said.
Along with Bramblett, Chris Kain, a returning player and the current treasurer for club tennis, has great expectations for this upcoming season as well.
“In my opinion, we will win one or two tournaments and we will definitely go to Nationals this year,” Kain said. “Now that we have some experience under our belt, and we know what we’re doing, we will come out guns blazing.”
KSU club tennis has come a long way since 2010, and according to Nathan She, a returning player for club tennis and former player for KSU men’s tennis, the progress has been “exponential.”
In February, club tennis finished fourth out of the 12 teams in a USTA tournament at Macon State and made it to the semi-finals of the USTA Tennis on Campus Southern Championship in Auburn. KSU competed against powerhouse schools like Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia-Tech and North Carolina. Club tennis even fell short by only one point to qualify for Nationals last spring.
“Us coming in fourth place in that first one shows that we have a pretty good club and pretty good team and we can only get better,” Bramblett said.
By finishing strong in both tournaments last spring, KSU club tennis has already begun to set a beacon for Kennesaw club sports and put Kennesaw athletics on the map.
“We have progressed so much, we have gotten to the point to where we can really make a difference and we can let people know who KSU is and it’s not ‘Kansas State,’” She said.
As far as improvements go for this co-ed club, She mentioned the importance of capitalizing on their mixed doubles play, which was a key component to their deep runs in tournament play last season.
“I’d like us to keep doing well at doubles, especially getting solid at mixed doubles,” She said. “That is where a lot of our central points have come down to.”
Overall, this team is very optimistic and they all share the same objective: Make it to Nationals.
“I feel like there is no reason we shouldn’t make Nationals this year with the team we have now, and we know what it takes to get there,” She said.
