lilcat19

Ugly or not, I was so proud that they made it there. They weren't supposed to win the match, but we were there. This was a HUGE accomplishment for the University of Akron tennis team. Go Zips!

I'm pretty sure you could not fill out a division I tennis team with girls from Hudson. In fact, I do not know a single division I tennis player from Hudson, but I havent kept up with it much. I am not a huge fan of the large amounts of foreign players, but there is no NCAA rule against it. I, personally, would like to see a limit of international players per team, but I'm sure someone would call "foul" and unfair on such a rule. I dont see it happening anytime soon. In terms of the players on Akron's team, Anna was found playing at WV St. We played at WVU for a fall invite and she was at WV St at the time. She was looking to transfer and ended up at Akron. Zara has been in the US for a while now. She went to a tennis academy in Cali. As for Akron, if you look at our school and our history in tennis, how many good American players would want to play there? Not that many. It is hard to get good American players to come play to a school like Akron. If you look at another MAC school, Miami of Ohio, it is a little easier to get good Americans interested in playing there. Akron has not been known as a tennis powerhouse. When you are a good recruiter, like Coach Jeff was for Akron, you find the best players that will come play for your school, regardless if they are American or not. But he didn't just look at tennis ability, he looked at who they were as a person and how they would fit into the team, which plays a big role in the success and improvement of a team. Jeff was able to turn Akron from a school that got used to playing on the first day of the tournament to a team that will accept nothing less than success. I know nothing about their current coach, so I cannot comment about how he coaches or recruits, but Akron has a heck of a team and I am so happy for them right now. I never would have dreamed we would win the MAC. Congrats girls!

College tennis is a little different than that as typically you play both doubles and singles. Your best player plays 1 and on down through 6. For doubles, you have to play based on the strength of the team. You dont have to have your best player play #1 doubles. A lot of times, your best singles player is far from your best doubles player. Sometimes, you ever have a "doubles specialist", which in this scenario is basically a player that is really really good at doubles but can't quite make the top 6 in singles. For doubles, you play in order of strength of the doubles team. You can change pairings from match to match, but you still have to have your strongest doubles team playing 1.

Zara is the best player on the team, trust me. You have to remember, she is playing the other team's best players, and she has played a lot of highly ranked players this year. There are a lot of teams that have a really great #1, but dont have the depth that Akron has (I never thought those words would come out of my mouth). And as for challenges. There really aren't "challenges" at the college level. Coach puts you wherever he/she thinks you should be based on ability. You are not allowed to "match up" players for matches, but you can alternate players of similar ability and records between positions for different matches, but are not allowed to try to match up which player will play best against an opponent. Zara is a great doubles player, but in college, you play both. Doubles is important, but you have to remember, you only get 1 point for the doubles. If you win at least 2 out of the 3 doubles matches, you get 1 point. Having her play only doubles would not help the team all that much. It is great to see the team doing well. I had no idea how things would go with the new coach, but it seems as if things are going pretty well. Go Zips

What do I think of the future of the program? I think it completely depends on the coach who is hired. If they make as good of a hire as they did with Jeff, than the program will be in great hands. If they take a step backwards the program will fall right back where it was, probably. They need a coach that is an amazing recruiter. They have to sell parents and athletes on what Akron has to offer. It is hard to get the top notch players to come play for a school that has no tennis facility. We dont have an indoor facility and we also dont even have outdoor courts. It is hard to sell a great player on a school that doesnt even have courts. Jeff managed to do that and get some top notch players on an international level. That is what Akron needs, a coach that can recruit. The next step is to have someone as passionate as he was about tennis. A true student of the game. Jeff could have been doing anything that he wanted. He had a law degree from Columbia, he could have been doing something for a lot more money. To him, I highly doubt things were about salary. He coaches tennis b/c he loves it. I don't know anything about the new AD, but I'm sure that he will make the right decision regarding how they go about hiring a coach. I do not know who the new coach will be. They might have the assistant coach take over on an interim basis, but I cannot comment b/c I honestly do not know. I got the opportunity to interview the 3 potential coaches that the university brought in after Coach Fox resigned. I thought it was a great thing to allow an athlete on the team to participate in. I got to ask the questions that, as a member of the team, I wanted to know. I wanted to know how he ran practice, his rules for traveling and practices, his vision for the team, etc. Of the people I interviewed, I told Mary Lu that Jeff was who I would recommend. The others were great choices, but based on what I heard in the interview, that he would be best for our team. But if anyone were to put themselves in Jeff's shoes, I am willing to be you would do the same thing. Aren't all jobs "stepping stones" to a better one? Aren't you always looking to move to the next level? Don't sit there and judge him for as you say "jumping at the first offer" when I would have to say a majority of the people in the world, would do the same thing. And I highly doubt that it was his first offer. I hope that Akron hires a great coach. A few years ago, no one would have cared enough to be arguing that a coach left the women's tennis team for a better job. I think that speaks to the caliber of coach that he is.

Having played under Coach Wyshner, I wish him the best of luck at Wake. For those of you who say he "used" us or is a "douche", you guys are idiots on this subject. If you knew anything about Jeff, you would not be saying that. Jeff gave his heart and soul to Akron athletics. He took over a team that, I will say it, was horrible. I was a member of that team. We had no confidence in ourselves, we had been told that we were not going to win, and had been beaten into the ground emotionally. We had good players but we hadn't had a good coach. Jeff came in and changed that. The atmosphere of the team changed completely from the first day we stepped on to the practice court with him as a coach. He made tennis fun again and was able to teach, coach, and help us in the process. I learned so much from Jeff and wouldn't trade my last two years as an Akron Zips tennis player for anything. I have never seen anyone so passionate about being an Akron Zip as Coach Jeff was. He was proud to be a part of the Akron athletics family. He loved it there. He spent more time doing stuff related to the team than I, or anyone else besides his family, probably know. He was dedicated to the success of the team. That is why Akron became such an amazing team. It was him. Do you think that top caliber tennis players would come play for Akron because of Akron? No. The players he recruited came there because of him. He is an amazing recruiter and a VERY personable guy. When you talk with him, you realize how great of a guy he is and how passionate he is about the sport of tennis. I knew that he would be getting offers from great schools. My dad told me a while ago that he was wondering how soon Jeff would be recruited away to a bigger school. We saw it coming. I was hoping that it wouldnt come, because I love seeing Akron Tennis play at the caliber that they do, but how can you blame him? This is an amazing opportunity. He will go down to Wake and will do amazing things. Jeff did so much for Akron tennis. He left the team in a much better place than where he inherited it. What more can anyone ask for? Good Luck Coach Jeff!

Nothing has been added for a while... Akron advanced to the semis of the MAC championships for the first time ever on Friday. They beat BG 4-1. They now play Western on Saturday, which will be a big match. Western will not want to lose to Akron twice in one year (especially with this match meaning so much), so they will probably come out motivated and ready to play. They also have "home court advantage" with the match being played at Western. Akron also had many honors at the MAC banquet on Thursday night. Zara won player of the year (again) and Angelina won Freshman of the Year. Zara and Angelina were also first team all MAC while Angelika received 2nd team all MAC. Good Luck Zips! Wish I could be there.

I asked the same thing. Something with computer points and the teams they played have struggled recently. They now start playing tough competition again so we'll see how it goes.

Ranked again. #66!!!

Yeah, I can help ya with the whole "where do they play outdoors?" thing. They no longer play outdoors at Hyre. When Jeff got here, we started playing our outdoor matches (if we ever actually have any) at Springside. The outdoor facility is very nice, much nicer than Hyre. It is a very nice place to play and to watch. They play at Springside Racquet Club in Fairlawn. If you turn onto springside dr off of 18, it will be on your right. It is hard to see sometimes so watch closely. Here is the website. http://www.springsidefitness.com/ I am hoping for outdoors (as long as it is warm, I dont do well with cold or even chilly). It is right by my house and gym and would be perfect. Buffalo has a very good team. Their top 2 girls were all conference last year, or so I heard This will be a fun match. Buffalo always has good doubles teams. Even when they were last or bottom in the conference, they always had good doubles teams. They are a well coached team and I am really excited to see it. Go Zips~

They had 2 great wins today. They made Cincinnati look like inferior team, which apparently they were. They beat us 5-2 last year (but if I remember correctly, that was not their best tennis that day). I know from experience that Cincinnati is anything but a "bad" team, and from watching them today, they have some great players. The crazy thing is, our players are THAT MUCH better than them. I love seeing that.The girls really stepped up and showed that they deserve that ranking!As far as international recruiting goes, Coach Jeff took a team that was a last place team in the MAC (when he took over) to a nationally ranked, well respected program. He really put Akron Tennis on the map and right now, that is all that matters. American players the caliber of what we have now would not have committed to Akron (previously). They had no reason to. What had we proved? You have to build a program that top American players actually want to play for before you can even really spend time recruiting them. If an American player was given the option to play for Ohio State, Kentucky, Indiana, etc...they would choose one of those schools because they have a well respected program with a history of winning. Even within our own conference, most girls would choose Miami (Ohio), Western Michigan, etc before us because they have a history of winning. Well, now we are starting to show that we can win. You have to start somewhere, and Akron was never going to be this successful with the type of tennis player that we were able to sign from the US. I am kind of degrading myself with saying all of this, but it is the truth. As a coach, you do what you have to do to win. Coach Jeff has taken this program to heights that I NEVER thought I would see, especially only two years after I graduated.On a completely different subject (relating to me ), I did finally get back onto the court for the first time this week and played (and won) my first match since I had shoulder surgery last year. I am pretty excited about that so I thought I would share

TENNIS TEAM IS RANKED FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER!!!Ranked #73 in the nation. They rank 75, but having never been ranked, it is awesome. Right ahead of us is LSU, Utah, Ok State, BYU, etc.Congrats to the girls. I know they work hard.

I beg to differ. The men's team did not decide to cut tennis; the University Administration made that decision.To get an idea of how not many collegiate men's tennis teams there are go to http://www.collegetennisonline.com/UMMMMM, I wasnt saying the MENS TEAM decided to cut it. I was saying the University decided to cut it. What team would choose to get rid of itself? But thank you.Title IX itself is not bad. How the universities decide to enact it is bad. Title IX is designed to give women an equal opportunity to get a scholarship as a man. It was not meant for universities to cut sports. Universities could add more women's teams. Or heck, universities/athletic departments could decide to not give the 5th string quarterback, 4th string LG, and 2nd string punter a scholarship. Maybe they could earn a scholarship, but they may never play a down during a game and will have everything paid for, where you have some of the best baseball players, tennis players, soccer players, etc who work just as hard and have to pay for their own school. Football has so many scholarships that it takes away from the other men's sports. That is the problem with Title IX.

we used to have a men's team.....title IX happened and they decided to cut itthere aren't all that many men's programs, and there is very little scholarship money available for them

I was waiting for someone to post about the tennis team.Let me tell you, they are amazing. And yes, the teams they have beaten are very good. Lets put it this way, we have never beaten them before with the exception of Xavier, which that win happened in the early 1990's. I cannot say for sure if we had ever played Western KY before.For those of you who do not follow the tennis team, up until the last few years, we were the team that other MAC teams looked forward to playing because if one thing was for sure, they would beat Akron. We have Zara, who is ranked NATIONALLY and who has beaten Ohio State's #1 singles player (trust me, OSU's player is good, I have played her). What turned the team around? Well, 4 years ago, Akron tennis got a new coach. He brought so much to the program. He truly cares about the game of tennis, he truly cares about the girls on his team, he understands a lot about the game and strategies, etc. I have never seen a tennis coach work as hard as he does. The preparation that he does is what helps make the team as good as it is. He has been able to bring in some great recruits, and that says a lot about him as a person. If you ever get a chance to come out and watch these girls play, do it. You will be seeing one of the top teams in the country, just ask some of the coaches of the teams they played. And to say we dont have a "home court advantage", that is only partially true. Would it be AWESOME to have an indoor facility on campus, yes...but we dont. What we do have is a GREAT club in LaTuchie Tennis Center that does so much for the Akron Tennis team. They are a great host and I do believe that we create a home court advantage. Spectators are allowed to sit court-side on either end. Before the courts were resurfaced, we had a huge advantage b/c they played super fast, which I loved.But seriously, come out and watch the Tennis Team play!