By outreach@cw.ua.edu (Ben Boynton)
The University of Alabama men’s tennis coach, Dan Husack, has a simple goal for this season: continue to improve, and have the season last long.
“I don’t want to have a May where we’re at home and not in the post-season,” Husack said.
Husack isn’t only concerned with the success of the team. He is also very focused on helping his team get better individually.
“We just have to get better,” Husack said. “Get better, get better, get better.”
The mantra of “get better” isn’t exclusively limited to Husack. The players echo their coach’s sentiments.
“We’ve been working hard all fall and pre-season, and we’ve been putting in the work to get here,” sophomore Danny Kerznerman said.
The Crimson Tide split their season opening doubleheader Saturday, losing to Virginia Tech before defeating Georgia State. They face another doubleheader on Monday, going up against UAB and Samford. The team feels that they learned some things on Saturday that they can carry over into Monday.
“We have to build on, we’re a good team, and that’s what Monday is going to provide, another opportunity to build and get better,” Husack said.
The team has had plenty of time to practice and improve recently, with the University of Alabama on winter break. That will not be the case going forward, as the team will now have to contend with classes starting back up. This will limit the amount of time the team will have to practice, and could cause some changes to what goes on in the practices they do have.
“It kind of makes things difficult, because we have less time to practice,” Kerznerman said. “Some days I don’t even get back to my place until it’s late.”
Sophomore Grayson Goldin finds playing away from Tuscaloosa the most challenging part of balancing tennis with class.
“When we play away matches we can miss class, and making that up and staying caught up in class is definitely challenging,” Goldin said.
The Crimson Tide will have to structure practices around school schedules, and make sure that each player is still able to have success in the classroom.
For now, they look ahead to Monday’s matches. The Crimson Tide defeated UAB 7-0 last season in their matchup, and also defeated Samford last year 6-1.
Alabama will start the day against UAB at 1 p.m., and will face Samford at 5 p.m. at the Roberta Alison Baumgardner Tennis Facility here in Tuscaloosa.
Source:: The Crimson White Sports
