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Friday,
April 2, 2004 |
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Frogs
to turn losses around
The
men’s tennis team hopes a recent losing streak will
not keep them from re-establishing early-season success.
By
Ryan Claunch
The
TCU men’s tennis team hopes to use the past few weeks’
experiences to help it prepare for its tough remaining
schedule.
After starting the season with a perfect 12-0 record,
the Frogs have slipped of late, losing three of their
last five matches, including two against top 10 opponents.
“We started out strong this season,” head coach
Joey Rivé said. “I think we’re doing
fine. It’s a long season and we’re looking to
build through the end up until the Conference USA tournament.”
Rivé also said the No. 14 Frogs became highly motivated
early on in the season and that they still have that same
motivation.
The team faced its first loss of the season with a 3-4
upset by No. 51-ranked Tulsa. Following the season’s
first loss, the Frogs gathered themselves and bounced
back with victories over Miami and Boise State 7-0 and
4-3 respectively.
“The loss against Tulsa was a tough road loss,”
Rivé said. “With that loss we learned that
we can’t take people for granted, or simply by their
ranking. It showed us that no matter what we always need
to be aggressive.”
Following those two victories, the Frogs have lost their
last two matches, falling to No. 6-ranked Rice and most
recently No. 2-ranked Baylor on Tuesday.
Rive said the current losing streak has more to do with
a tough schedule than poor performances.
“With teams like Rice and Baylor, there’s always
the possibility that we would still have lost despite
how well we played,” he said. “There are lots
of good teams in our schedule this season and several
are very hard to play.”
Rivé explained that at any given point, it is difficult
for everyone to be at their best.
“It’s tough for all the players to be at the
top of their game at any one match,” he said. “With
that we know we need to always stay focused and work hard
as a team each and every match.”
Their next two matches promise to be challenging. The
men’s team will play their next two on the road,
first heading to North Carolina to face Duke today, followed
by Virginia on Sunday.
Rivé said that playing a couple matches on the
road will benefit the team, considering their schedule
has been home-heavy.
“I believe that it will be good for us to get out
on the road for a few matches, he said. “We’ve
been playing too many here and I feel it will build character
for us to get out there and play some good matches on
the road,” |
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