Troy University Athletics
Troy Prepares to Host Tournament
9/24/2009 3:15:00 PM | Tennis
TROY, Ala. - The Troy University tennis teams have been used to traveling during the months of September and October to play in fall tournaments, but they will have a chance to sleep in their own beds this weekend as they host the own fall tournament.
The Troy Fall Tennis Classic begins Friday, September 25 at the Lunsford Tennis Complex and will run through Sunday; and according to Eric Hayes this is a big deal for the tennis teams.
"This is our first collegiate event here," Hayes said. "We have teams have coming from all the divisions, and in the fall you can play teams from all over and it helps with your rankings. We have every level coming to the tournament, including AUM from up the road. If they were Division I, they would be Top 30 in the country. It is just going to be good to host the event since we are traveling so much."
The Trojans will be put the test early, especially on the women's side where they are young on paper. The men are young as well, with a roster loaded with sophomores, but they gained experience down the stretch last year as freshman that could pay off in the end.
"The men last year were loaded with freshmen," Hayes said. "They picked it up at the end of the year and beat some good teams, and we have all of them back. On the women's side, six of the nine players are freshmen. We picked up a good recruit here late, so the women are going to be young but very talented."
This will be one of the few times that Hayes will get a chance to watch both of his teams play, although this is an individual-based tournament. At most tournaments, there are multiple sites that coaches have to travel to watch their teams play; while at the Lunsford Tennis Complex the courts are centralized and the facility is big enough to host a tournament of this magnitude.
"It is going to be nice to play at home," Hayes said. "It is going to be nice not to have to run all over the place to watch the tournament, running around from site to site like you do at other places."
The tournament will feature teams from all over the Southeast, including the six-time defending NAIA champion Senators from Auburn Montgomery on the women's side and the runner-up Senators on the men's side. The men's side will also feature Mercer, Kennesaw State, Tulane and Tennessee Tech among others. On the women's side, the field will feature Sun Belt Conference foe South Alabama, as well as UAB, Georgia State, Jacksonville, Kennesaw State, Mercer and Tennessee Tech among others.
"It is big to be able to get teams from the region to play," Hayes said. "After this tournament is the Regionals for us, which is a qualifier for the national indoors. So this tournament is big because it gets us prepared for that level of play. It is just good to have people coming to us to play. We follow it up with the pro tournament in a few weeks, so it is just two good weeks of tennis that is going to take place. It will be a good economic impact for the city of Troy."
Hayes believes that this tournament will be a good precursor for the professional tournament that the Lunsford Tennis Complex will host next month.
"That pro circuit tournament is great," Hayes said. "This is the seventh year we will host, and this past year with Melanie Oudin playing well at Wimbledon and the US Open, it has helped with promoting this year. She got to the semifinals last year here, worked out with her team and it was awesome. We probably have 10 or 12 of the top 50 players in the world that have played in our tournament."
But before the pro tournament hits Troy, the Trojans will prepare for the spring by hosting their first collegiate tournament this weekend.
"We will just get matches," Hayes said. "It will get us in shape and we need to get results. We won't have any excuses but to get results, and that is what we are looking for. We are looking to be successful against anyone we play, and anything else will be a disappointment."
The Troy Fall Classic gets underway on Friday at the Lunsford Tennis Complex. The draws will be posted as soon as they become available for this weekend.
