Success for tennis team begins with practices

College tennis consists of nine matches; there are three doubles matches and six singles matches and every point matters, according to Graham Oliveira.

The 20-year-old Westerly, R.I., native spoke on behalf of the Norwich tennis team.

"It starts off on the practice court where everything you learn goes into your matches," said Oliveira, a junior. "In tennis, and in all sports, the intensity of your practice should be as if you are playing a match."

Peter Hooper, 23, an electrical engineer from Spartanburg, S.C., and recent tennis alumni, spoke about the mental aspect of tennis.

"Aside from obvious conditioning and skill development, team practice offers advantages like time outside of high-pressure match situations to mentally prepare for third-set situations," Hooper said.

Kyle Dezotell, coach of the tennis team, pushed for match simulations during practices.

"We try to simulate match conditions as often as possible in training. We put players in situations similar to which they'll fare in their matches. This way, they will feel comfortable and prepared when they encounter a potentially troublesome match scenario," Dezotell said.

Hooper, a two-time, MVP, of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC), had many words of wisdom about the practice and mental aspect of this game.

Tennis is a sport that is very individual and practice time helps build team relationships, confidence and the mental edge to believe in a match. Although tennis is an individual sport, teammates point out weaknesses, according to Hooper.

"We want our players to always be thinking about improvements," Dezotell said. "Being an individual sport, a lot of our training is individualized."

According to Oliveira, striving to do better is a "must" every time an athlete is on the court because the game is so mentally challenging.

According to former Grand Slam champion Jim Courier, "tennis is 90 percent mental."

The Norwich team has been consistently working hard on strengthening its weaknesses, but unfortunately it lost fell to Castleton in its first match of the season.

Joe Dvorak, the only freshman on the team to start, has been working hard on his match play, according to Oliveira

The 18-year-old from De Soto, Kansas, has been playing and improving every day, according to the junior.

"If I just keep my head up and stick to my game plan then I will compete at a higher level than I am now," Dvorak said.  

Dezotell has been focusing on improvements in each player's weakness this season.

"I hope our players strive to improve every day. As athletes, we love to do what we are good at; however, we only drastically improve when we consciously work on our weaknesses," Dezotell said.

The Cadets will be going down to Boston to play their first conference match against Suffolk soon and they will be implementing all of the tools that they have been working on to beat the number one team in the conference.

According to Oliveira, the Suffolk tennis team was undefeated last year and is hungry for some good matches.