THE FIRST STEP...

I have had many people come up to me before the start of the season and ask me if we have a good team. It's a difficult question to answer because we are a very young team that graduated 3 major contributors last season. We graduated our number 1, 2, and 4 players that were the last remnants of our 2012 NCAA championship team. We had a good showing the past weekend against some very difficult opponents, but, playing the top D-3 teams at a major event is a totally different animal.

I had no idea how we would perform, but, what I did know was that we have a great group of players who bought into a common purpose. Our guys worked really hard prior to the start of the event and were prepared for the tournament. One of the biggest cliche's in sports is all the talk about chemistry, a term that's very difficult to define. I have come to realize that over the years, even though it's a cliche, chemistry matters. Chemistry to me is a group of individuals who put the team before there own needs. Some years, players buy into this concept, and others years, not so much. This quote sums up what chemistry is all about, " A great team will be beat a team with great players."  Roberto Bazzarella, a sophomore, came on the trip knowing that he would not play, but, decided to come so that he could support his teammates. His unselfishness and support helped us throughout the tournament.

I am going to give a broad overview of the tournament, rather than rehash each individual match. I have said many times that winning championships is all between the ears. Yes, talent matters, but handling adversity is much more important. For a young team, our guys played with the maturity like they were seasoned veterans. They faced many difficult situations throughout the tournament and with each tough moment, they refocused, and didn't panic. I give a lot of credit to their captain, Rafe Mosetick. Rafe has grown a great deal during his four years at Emory, and, his positive leadership helped everyone on the team.

Teams that win NCAA's get contributions from all spots in the lineup during the course of a tournament. If one player loses at 3 singles in the quarter-finals, he may pick us up with a win in the semi-finals. This was definitely the case this weekend. Everyone on the team contributed to winning the Indoor Title.

Rafe: was able to notch 2 big wins at 1 singles against quality opponents. Rafe and Jonathan also won a big match at 2 doubles against Chicago.

Jonathan: showed Division III tennis why he is one of the best players in the country winning all 3 of his singles matches and going to 2 for 3 in doubles with Rafe. Jonathan's match clinched the title.

Aman: was one of the unsung hero's of the tournament. He went 3-0  in the tournament beating some very good players.

Adrien: was also an unsung hero, going 3-0 at the number 4 singles spot. Adrien was the first singles point against Chicago, beating a very good player.

Josh: "the closer" went 2 for 3 over the weekend at 5 singles. The Carnegie match was very difficult and Josh like he did against Dalton State, clinched the match for us.

Andrew: had the hardest job, he had to wait each match for 2.5 hours before he went on court. His doubles play over the weekend, going 3-0 with Omsky was very critical in our success.

David: went 3-0 in doubles with Andrew and his leadership on court was much amazing. His win against Carnegie after being down 5-2 helped us from going down 0-3 in doubles.

Scotty: had the difficult task of playing number 1 doubles. He was a leader on the court and handled some very difficult situations. He and his partner, James Spaulding, went 2-1 over the weekend.

James:  like Scotty, had a great weekend, beating the number 3 ranked Chicago team on the last day. Most importantly, he got some very good experience.

As good we played this weekend, we need to get a whole lot better. The worst thing we can do now is to be content, this has happened to us in the past, and we cannot let this happen again. It's only the first step.

I have been to many Indoor National Championships and Case Western did an amazing job hosting the event. They made it a real special deal for all of the athletes. Many thanks to all who put this tournament together!!!