South Carolina to face two top-25 teams in Mississippi State, Memphis
Two matches against top-25 opponents are all that stands between the South Carolina men’s tennis team and national recognition.
This weekend the Gamecocks travel to Starkville, Miss., to battle Mississippi State, Harvard and Memphis in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s Kick-off Weekend.
“This is a qualification for the top 16 teams in the country, which is where we want to put ourselves for the rest of the year,” coach Josh Goffi said. “This is an immediate jump start to the season. If we can accomplish that, we set ourselves into that upper tier that these young guys and veterans deserve to be.”
The No. 18 Gamecocks have not had success in recent history against the 13th-ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs but will look to change that this weekend. But first, they must get through another top-25 team — No. 21 Memphis.
Goffi believes the team has the skill set to do so.
“Our guys have a ton of character. There are better ball-strikers than us, but as tennis players go, we’re about as good as anybody right now,” Goffi said. “[They] understand never to panic in the face of adversity, the ability to think objectively on the court and apply the proper strategy. We are doing pretty well with that right now.”
The Gamecocks are coming off dominant home performance against Furman and The Citadel, winning both matches 7-0. In those matches, freshmen Andrew Schafer and Sam Swank played their first collegiate matches and won.
This weekend, however, they will be thrust into top-tier competition, and teammates like junior Andrew Adams hope to help get them through it.
“They’ve never seen anything like the environment they’ve been introduced to, so you constantly need to give them moral support and tell them that they belong there and that they are great players,” Adams said. “When you get into the college experience, it can be a little overwhelming because the competition is so tough. You always need to be reminded that they are good enough to hang with the big boys.”
To prepare for this weekend, Goffi has been preaching to his team that they have to believe they are good enough to compete and to expect ups and downs. His focus in practice has been that the Gamecocks must operate on the same page if they want to win.
“Everyday in practice — every word in practice — is about that. It’s real simple: You talk about it, you act like it, you embody that, it ends up being what your team believes in,” Goffi said. “We’re finally getting to that point where guys realize what we can bring to the table every day and what it actually means to be a competitor.”
Conditions in Starkville could become a factor this weekend. The forecast calls for lows that are below freezing Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights with winds up near 12 mph.
The team has been mentally preparing themselves for those conditions.
“We need to be tough competitors. Our team is known for being some of the toughest competitors out there, and that’s the reason we are where we are today, because we are absolute warriors on the court. We may not be the best tennis players, but at the end of the day it’s all about competing,” Adams said. “That’s the biggest thing for our team, and that’s the biggest thing going into this weekend is being tough.”
With a dominating performance at home, the Gamecocks believe they can compete with — and even beat — any team that they face this weekend and look to leave the ITA Kick-off Weekend with victories over two top-25 teams.
“I’m pretty confident that we can come out this weekend with two wins. The two teams we play this weekend don’t outmatch us by any means. I think we are more than ready to take both teams down, and again, anything could happen, but we are about as ready as we could be to go into this weekend,” Adams said. “There’s really nothing stopping us.”