Club sports: Tennis takes down Cougs
Noah Tinker
Issue date: 3/6/07 Section: Sports
The women's and men's OSU Club Tennis teams came away with matching victories in a dual meet against visiting Washington State on Saturday, winning seven out of eight matches.
To make the contest shorter, both the men and women played "pro sets," in which the athletes only play against each other for one set instead of winning the best two out of three, which is traditional in college. In addition, the winner is the first player to score eight points and win by two, unlike the traditional format of whoever makes it to six first.
In men's singles, Andrew Prichard and Noah Strycker each dominated their games, winning 8-3 and 8-1, respectively.
In men's doubles, club president Brian Theobald and partner Brian Wong defeated their opponents in a closely contested match 9-7. Erik Hagen and partner Harris Hung had a much easier time, dispatching the adversaries 8-2.
For the women, Ashley Kamsouk, the women's club president, turned in an equally impressive performance en route to an 8-2 victory. Her counterpart, Stephanie Misola, had a tougher time, playing hard, but coming up short in an 8-3 loss.
In doubles, Sarah Ing and Kamsouk combined in an 8-3 route. Ing then partnered with Misola, who was able to put the earlier loss behind her and contribute to an 8-1 win.
The teams fell to UO last weekend in a close contest, but have seen a steady progression in the level of play from both sides.
"We have a strong bunch of people coming out," Theobald said. "Every year [the club] just keeps getting bigger and stronger."
Theobald noted, "When I first came here the club was just for fun, it wasn't really competitive. I came with a large group of guys that had been really competitive in high school and we wanted to play more matches and participate in nationals."
Satoshi Kimura, the coach of the women's club, is also pleased with his teams' performance to date.
"We've been doing fine, we had a good match against UO last week, I was pretty happy with it," Kimura said. "I mean after all this is a club team, winning or losing doesn't really matter in club sports."
Both the men and women's teams play together as a rule.
Kimura, a graduate student in oceanography who played for the men's team from 2004 until this year, points out, "We're a separate club by paperwork, I'm not the coach of the men's team, just the women's, but we do stuff together."
Kamsouk, a junior in exercise sports science, is also pleased with her teams' improvement.
"We've gained a lot more competitive girls this year," she said. "It's still pretty small, but I think we have a good chance of increasing our win total and going to nationals."
Kimura is open to anyone who wants to try out for the team, but recommends attending at least a few tennis classes before hand.
"Strategy is really important in tennis, especially at the college level," Kimura said. "The technique is probably the same, but strategy makes a difference when it comes to winning or losing."
To make the contest shorter, both the men and women played "pro sets," in which the athletes only play against each other for one set instead of winning the best two out of three, which is traditional in college. In addition, the winner is the first player to score eight points and win by two, unlike the traditional format of whoever makes it to six first.
In men's singles, Andrew Prichard and Noah Strycker each dominated their games, winning 8-3 and 8-1, respectively.
In men's doubles, club president Brian Theobald and partner Brian Wong defeated their opponents in a closely contested match 9-7. Erik Hagen and partner Harris Hung had a much easier time, dispatching the adversaries 8-2.
For the women, Ashley Kamsouk, the women's club president, turned in an equally impressive performance en route to an 8-2 victory. Her counterpart, Stephanie Misola, had a tougher time, playing hard, but coming up short in an 8-3 loss.
In doubles, Sarah Ing and Kamsouk combined in an 8-3 route. Ing then partnered with Misola, who was able to put the earlier loss behind her and contribute to an 8-1 win.
The teams fell to UO last weekend in a close contest, but have seen a steady progression in the level of play from both sides.
"We have a strong bunch of people coming out," Theobald said. "Every year [the club] just keeps getting bigger and stronger."
Theobald noted, "When I first came here the club was just for fun, it wasn't really competitive. I came with a large group of guys that had been really competitive in high school and we wanted to play more matches and participate in nationals."
Satoshi Kimura, the coach of the women's club, is also pleased with his teams' performance to date.
"We've been doing fine, we had a good match against UO last week, I was pretty happy with it," Kimura said. "I mean after all this is a club team, winning or losing doesn't really matter in club sports."
Both the men and women's teams play together as a rule.
Kimura, a graduate student in oceanography who played for the men's team from 2004 until this year, points out, "We're a separate club by paperwork, I'm not the coach of the men's team, just the women's, but we do stuff together."
Kamsouk, a junior in exercise sports science, is also pleased with her teams' improvement.
"We've gained a lot more competitive girls this year," she said. "It's still pretty small, but I think we have a good chance of increasing our win total and going to nationals."
Kimura is open to anyone who wants to try out for the team, but recommends attending at least a few tennis classes before hand.
"Strategy is really important in tennis, especially at the college level," Kimura said. "The technique is probably the same, but strategy makes a difference when it comes to winning or losing."
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