Men’s tennis readying for SEC foes Georgia, Tennessee at home
The South Carolina men’s tennis team will enter SEC play today in what will be their toughest week of competition of the regular season, as they will battle No. 6 Georgia at 2:30 p.m. this afternoon and No. 19 Tennessee at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
Five days after sweeping their second-to-last doubleheader of the season, the Gamecocks now begin a run where they will play 12 of their final 14 matches against squads that were nationally ranked at the beginning of the season, 11 of which are still currently ranked.
The Gamecocks, too, have created a national presence. After starting the season unranked, the team now finds itself at No. 22, more than halfway closer to the top than where they were a week ago as the No. 46 team. Their position in the top-25 is the highest the program has been ranked since April 2005.
Head coach Josh Goffi hopes the recognition will be just a part of his team’s progress and that it will help propel them forward.
“I think this team has worked extremely hard this year and they deserve this ranking,” Goffi said. “It’s early in the year and we’re getting into the toughest part of our schedule here, so our goal is not to have a great ranking; our goal is to consistently come out and accomplish our goals that we set for each match. We want to follow the old quota, ‘A champion never fails to have a great ranking,’ meaning that we just have to keep going out there and taking care of ourselves, and keep striving as individuals and as a team to become champions. At that point we’ll have a good ranking. The ranking is what it is. They deserve it, and I’m happy for the guys.”
In their first conference matchup of the season, South Carolina will face off against rival Georgia, who has been the most formidable matchup on the schedule for the entire season. The Bulldogs began the season ranked as the fourth best team in the nation and have held their ground in the top 10 .
Tennessee has held steady and met expectations as well, advancing only one spot from their initial rank of No. 20.
Even though the matches are against highly-regarded squads, Goffi and his young crew know it’s all about them.
“As long as we can go out there and compete and give it our all and leave our hearts on the court, there is no downside,” Goffi said, “and there’s never going to be a downside, regardless. Who we play, who we beat or whatever — we only ask our guys to go out there and compete. If we give it our all and we commit to being one hundred percent locked in, then we’ll either be on the winning side of the ball or not. If we’re not then our hats go off to the other guys.”
In addition to facing a pair of highly ranked programs, USC will have to go head-to-head against seven of the nation’s top 100 singles players in the two matches, including the five top-50 singles members that Georgia has the luxury of putting across the net.
Goffi knows what his guys are up against, but he has had faith in their ability all season.
“I think we’re going to match up fine. Tennis is a day-to-day sport and it’s an individual versus another individual,” Goffi said. “It has nothing to do with a team and their philosophy; it has everything to do with putting your guy out there against theirs and only being better than him on that certain day. It doesn’t matter if he’s better than him nine out of 10 days. It’s just that one day. That’s the way we kind of look at it, is us just beating the guy across the net on that given day ... so I think we’re going to match up fine.”
The Gamecocks were able to compete in the new Carolina Tennis Center last weekend, an event that had players, coaches and fans excited. But with possible rain and thunderstorms in the forecast for the next few days, the matches may be moved back indoors.
Goffi was quick to express his desire to take advantage of any time they can get on the outdoor courts, saying it could play a huge part in the outcome of the match.
“It would be amazing for a lot of reasons,” Goffi said. “I think [our players are] feeling at home in the new facilities, so it would be nice. Not to mention that it’s nice when six guys get to line up together when they’re playing singles, rather than just having four and the match gets a little drawn out or a little stagnant ... So as far as we’re concerned, we’d obviously like to play outside for momentum purposes and getting all six guys out there.”