The men’s tennis will be playing a double header this Sunday against Wilmington at 10 a.m., followed by a match against Winthrop at 2:30 p.m. The team started off 2007 with a 3-0 record, sweeping all three of its opponents, High Point 6-1, Gardner-Webb 6-1 and the Citadel 7-0.
The Wolfpack played Wilmington last year, winning the match 5-2. Coach Jon Choboy knows both teams are very competitive and understands his players have to come to play this week.
“We played with UNC-Wilmington last year, and they’re pretty good. They’re very competitive, and they come to play, so I know that’s going to be a tough match,” Choboy said. “Winthrop has won the Big South Conference probably three or four times out of the last five years. They have a lot of NCAA experience, and they’re used to winning, and they have a lot of very good players, so it’s going to take a notch up this week from what we did last week.”
Sophomore Jay Weinacker also thinks the Seahawks are competitive but believes State has a stronger lineup. He added Winthrop is the better opponent.
“Against Winthrop, they are probably the better team. They made NCAA tournament last year,” Weinacker said. “They had to play Duke first round last year. That was kind of a tough draw. I know that they are a solid team all the way throughout. So that would be the toughest match of the day. Kind of the same thing, we will have to come out with a lot of the same energy and be focused and get ready for a great match.”
During practice this week, Choboy had his players practice everything.
“Lot of the basic things we’ve been doing over and over again,” Choboy said. “Returning we’ve been wanting to do a little bit better. A lot of volleys, adding more variation to the game, building a little bit more each week, building a little more into the repertoire that we can do.”
Both Weinacker and freshman James McGee did not play last week. McGee is recovering from an ankle sprain.
Despite not playing, Weinacker has been working on his game during practice and knows he has to work harder because he has no games under his belt.
“Just try to play some more points since I didn’t get the matches that the other guys got,” Weinacker said. “Just working on some of the things that we’ve been working on all year — volley, serve, my forehand, just trying to get it heavy, but most of all just trying to get a point play this week. Those other guys have two or three matches and I don’t have any. I did a lot of point play just to try to get ready.”