Emma Castillo/THE RIDER
The UTRGV Men’s Tennis team is starting up their fall season this year with their first match of the season being held Sept. 11-13 in Corpus Christi, against the Islanders. As of press time, results are not available.
With the current focus on the Corpus Christi Islanders, head coach Nathan Robinson said that the Corpus Christi Tournament will be a beneficial starting point for the whole team and even the coach.
“A lot of it is just continuing growth…making sure the game plans are fully set, making sure you’re fully confident of what you’re trying to do on the court,” Robinson said. “Then when you’re finding a different level, a different kind of guy, [making] sure you understand how that applies; that is basically the biggest piece to the ball for us.”
Robinson said these upcoming matches are each seen as not only positive conflict for the players’ skills, but also as potential opportunities for them to become players in regional meets and higher skill ceilings.
“Regionals is the opportunity for our guys to qualify for bigger tournaments, also with opportunities to become ranked… If we’re doing things right, then there’s other things that could happen along with it,” he said. “Texas, this is a tough region to play, every day is a battle, so just getting those reps in against the high end competition.”
Emma Castillo/THE RIDER
The tournaments are something that Robinson said he encourages others to come and witness as “some of the best teams in the country” compete in them.
“I always say, if you have an opportunity to come out and watch, please do, come up, say hi, meet the guys,” he said. “It’s a good group to be around, to get to know. I’m really blessed to have this group, so I’m excited to hopefully see everybody out there.”
The tennis morals that Robinson teaches his team shows in both the practice and game, but also in the players themselves.
Ivo Isquiero, a fifth-year tennis student, said that his goals for the team go hand-in-hand with the confident and winning mindset.
“As a team, we hope that we maximize our performance in every single draw, and we get one win in [every one of them,]” Isquiero said. “Individually, I just want to try and do my best first week back, you know, it can be tough with the conditions. So, just applying my game style and feeling confident in myself.”
Emma Castillo/THE RIDER
Junior Loic Young Kriegel said the bond within the team develops into his tennis skills, and the bond also benefits everyone’s energy for upcoming tournaments.
“Just in practice, you know, with the boys and everything, we’re always screaming and giving energy to each other,” Kriegel said. “So, I think that’s a way to get the energy high. Taking it one match at a time, especially the pressure with a new match.”
Senior Santiago Serrano said the overall goal for the tennis team this season is to win the conference and enter into the NCAA.
“We’ve been trying a lot to win it, [for] years we’ve been really close,” Serrano said. “Two years ago we were one match away from winning the regular season, so our goal is to just win [the] conference and get into [the] NCAA.”
The tennis team’s fall season starts on Sept. 11 to Nov. 8 with games scheduled against Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Islanders, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (Texas Regionals), the Rice University Owls, the South Land Conference and the International Tennis Federation M25 Harlingen.
