Lamar first league foe Saturday
3/4/2011 9:55:00 AM | Women's Tennis
With a young line-up of four freshmen, three sophomores and one senior, the Sam Houston women's tennis team is ready to open Southland Conference action this weekend.
The Bearkats, 2-1 on the year in dual match play, face a challenging assignment in their first league match as they face undefeated Lamar in Beaumont Saturday morning.
The Cardinals, who finished tied for third in last year's Southland Conference race, are 5-0 with victories over UTEP, Prairie View, Arkansas State, South Alabama and Southern Mississippi.
Sam Houston also owns dual match wins over UTEP and Prairie View. The Kats' only loss was a road match at the University of Houston.
Head coach Jim Giachino is optimistic about where the team stands feels that they have a good chance at accomplishing a their goals this season.
"This is a phenomenal team-everyone works hard to encourage each other and always gives their all in practices and in matches," Giachino said. "We have seven girls on the team with a great deal of potential, they are always working on improving their game. I believe that most of them will be under a lot of pressure to work harder, especially since we have not been playing as many matches due to the weather."
According to Giachino , the Bearkats will go in to the conference season a little "match shy" because of the cancellations that have taken place due to inclement weather. However, despite the fact that the team has not been able to participate in the number of matches they were scheduled for, Giachino still feels that there is no limit to what the team can accomplish as long as they continue to develop the way they have since last August.
"It is too early to talk about winning right now, " said Giachino. "We will have to see how we progress mentally as team of the course of this season. "We may win this year, we may not. But we have tremendous depth as a team and that is really going to make a difference this season and in the future as well."
The Bearkats look to go with their normal doubles line-up of Nadia Dubyanskaya and Tatyana Postnikoya at number one, Sheridan Currie and Cally Woerner at two and Imke Jagau and Natalie Petaia at three. Jagau, Postnikova, Dudyanskaya, Currie, Anrinette Botha and Petaia are expected to compete in the singles matches.
