Visiting William & Mary in Virginia

Last weekend I visited Williamsburg, VA to gather with my family from upstate New York to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of my great aunt and uncle. While I was in town I learned that the William & Mary women's tennis team would be playing a match versus the University of Pennsylvania on Easter Sunday. After going to church and then breakfast with my family at a local pancake house, I headed over to the William & Mary campus for the noon match.

It was a great day for tennis with plenty of sun and temperatures in the low 60s. The tennis center is right next to the basketball arena and it has plenty of space between the courts for spectators. William & Mary came into the match ranked #25 and 10-8 on the season. These are two good women's programs. Last season the Tribe took out Georgia Tech before the Lady Jackets went on their run to win the national championship. Penn was an NCAA tournament team last year and I saw them in the 2006 Atlanta regional, which Georgia Tech ended up winning. They came into the W&M match at 5-5, but I knew they were a talented team. I figured this would be a competitive match.

William & Mary won the doubles point with easy wins on court one and two, but court three turned out to be a great game with William & Mary winning in a tie break, 8-7. For the singles matches, I sat between courts two and three and saw some really good tennis. On two, Katarina Zoricic for W&M played Yulia Rivelis. They battled to a tie break in the first set before Zoricic won it. She had and easier time in set two winning it 6-3. On three, Ragini Acharya of W&M was matched up against Maria Anisimova. These two hit a lot of big groundstrokes and had plenty of good rallies. Anisimova did not like some of the calls on the other side of the net and was a little frustrated at times, but Acharva kept her head down and went on to a 6-1, 2-6, 6-1 win. William & Mary ended up winning the match 6-1, but it was closer than the score indicated.

William & Mary also has the number 10 ranked player in the country in Megan Moulton-Levy. The five foot senior has a great one-handed backhand and is extremely quick. She and Zoricic won their doubles match and then she won the first set of her singles match 6-1 and then her opponent retired. She likes to come to the net which is so nice to see in players today, as so few actually make that an integral part of their game.

Before the match started I had a nice conversation with Barb Zidek's father. They live in Chicago and try and see as many W&M matches as they can. They drove from Chicago for this one and even though his daughter was not in the lineup, he and his family were there supporting the team. I was really impressed. Barb also worked her way around the crowd during the match, promoting her weekly William & Mary sports talk show on William & Mary's radio station, WCWM, 90.9 FM. You can listen to the show every Sunday night from 8:00 - 9:00 p.m. in Williamsburg, or over the Internet at wcwm.org. If you get a chance, check it out.

Tomorrow I will be heading over to Winston-Salem, NC to see the Georgia Tech men's team take on Wake Forest. The Jackets started strong but have lost a few recently and are 11-8 and 1-5 in the ACC. Wake is 13-6 and 4-1 in the ACC. The Demon Deacons were a sweet 16 team last year and I expect this will be a good match. This will be the first time I get to see Georgia Tech play since I moved back to Charlotte. Go Jackets!

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Park Road Surprise

When I lived in Charlotte several years ago, I played frequently at the Park Road Park Tennis facility. It's a great public facility, with 12 courts and good lighting. When I moved back to Charlotte, I located in a home that is just a few blocks from the facility. Yesterday I took a walk to the facility to see if there was any good tennis being played.

The parking lot was packed as I approached the facility so I knew some kind of league play was taking place. I was incorrect in my guess. It turned out that a USTA junior event was taking place this weekend in Charlotte at the Jeff Adams Tennis Center. The 8th Annual Midcourt Cup had a large draw and the Park Road Tennis Facility was being used as an additional site for the tournament. This was the first time I saw a USTA junior event.

I ended up watching a Girls 18 singles round of 16 match with the number one seed, Aleah Morrow from Durham, NC and fourth seed Kristen Cox from Charlotte. Morrow looked very good. She has a great forehand and used an inside out stroke to her advantage numerous times. She won in straight sets 6-2, 6-0.

As I was standing watching the match, I noticed a young woman wearing a Notre Dame tennis warm up outfit. I asked her if she played for the Irish. It turns out her name is Jennifer Smith and she played for Notre Dame from 2003 through 2005. After she graduated she moved to Atlanta and then recently moved back to Charlotte. She grew up in Charlotte and played for South Mecklenburg High School prior to going to South Bend, Indiana. She is now a teaching tennis pro at the Old Providence Racquet Club, one of the great tennis clubs in Charlotte. It's very prestigious. In fact, I saw a Federation Cup match there a number of years ago when Jennifer Capriati was left out the competition due to a disagreement with then-captain Billie Jean King. The U.S. ended up losing the tie. Serious tennis fans will remember that incident.

I told Jen that I had visited ND a number of times and saw the men and women play the University of Southern California. The match took place the night before ND played a classic football game against USC when the Trojans won with nine seconds left in the game after a big fourth down play. I also told her I saw the Irish women's team play Georgia Tech in the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament in Athens last season. Georgia Tech ended up winning that match 4-2 and went on to beat UCLA for the national championship.

Jen is coaching a local girl who was in the draw. I did not see the match, but ran into her this morning and learned that her player did not advance. Hopefully she will have better luck the next time out. One thing that was clear to me as I watched these kids play is that many of them have good game.

When I got home and checked scores from the day I saw that the Georgia Tech women beat Notre Dame in South Bend, 5-2. The Lady Jackets are having a great season. They recently won the National Indoor Championship for the second year in a row and are currently ranked second in the nation. Bryan Shelton has done a great job with the GT women's program.

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