Greetings...

Hello and many apologies for the long lapse in posting. It was a whirlwind end to the season and to be honest, a slightly disappointing finish.

I know that many of you were following us live on ncaa.com and via twitter and for sure know by now, that we lost to Barry in the semifinals once again this year. This was our third loss in as many years to Barry at this point in the draw. However, this loss was a little different as we were ranked higher than Barry and had beaten them earlier in the season.

Oh well, what's done is done. No use crying over spilled milk. I had really hoped to bring home a National Championship for the Clipper-Nation and it looked to be even more possible this year. You have to give Barry credit. They played good tennis when it counted and stepped up in the moment. We did not. I will take the blame for that. I should have had the guys ready.

In any case, now we have a third semifinalist trophy in the case here in Bronxville and this is something that many other school would love to have. I guess this is not too shabby for the smallest NCAA participating school in the country.

We must say goodbye to Tamas and wish him well. Tamas has finished his fourth year of eligibility in tennis yet will be back at Concordia for his final semester academically. Rumor has it that he will be using his tremendous athletic ability for the cross country team in the fall. Best of luck. Tamas has been someone that could always be counted on and started to play the role of leader late in the season. It will be difficult for the team to replace him.

Now on to the summer break. One that is much needed by me. I look forward to some nicer weather, some time to think and also to prepare for the future. I promise you all that there will be some good players coming to help the cause in the fall. Most importantly, the returning players need to get better. We need to improve our collective game if we are to continue the winning ways. If we want to achieve our ultimate goal, we need to do more. It is not enough to simply set goals, we have to do what it takes to get the job done. Talk is cheap.

For now, nuff said...

Tuesday AM...

Starting the day. A bit of a late night watching the NBA in triple overtime. It's going to be another hot one out there as we hit the practice court at 10:30am. Looking forward to the breakfast at the hotel.

I hope Coach T. wakes up feeling better as his voice is gone and a bit under the weather. I tried to keep the room temperature above 60 degrees for him last night.

At least we had a quiet room as we had to move due to a very noisy dog next door.

Catch you all later. Off to the omelet station.

Nuff said...

The Trip Begins...

Today is the day. The final ride begins...

Up and out early this morning as we meet at the college at 8:45am to depart for the airport. We are leaving from HPN - White Plains. This is usually quite convenient as it is closest to Bronxville with no traffic and no bridge to cross. However, we will be taking a school bus as both men's and women's teams will be traveling together. School buses are not allowed on the highway that takes us to HPN so it is the back road route for us.

11:20 departure to Orlando scheduled. I hope to have better luck at this regional airport than I did at Florence, SC.

We should arrive in Orlando at about 2pm and get settled. Shortly after, we will hit the practice courts. The forecast is for very hot weather (95 degrees plus) so it will take some adjusting. We have no had the most balmy spring here in NY for sure.

Check back throughout the day for some updates and wish us luck.

Shower time.

Nuff said...

I Don't Know...

I just don't know if the players realize how hard it is to just flip the switch when you need to. We need some good preparation and we need it, well, yesterday! Looking forward to some much needed solid practice time. These matches will not win themselves.

Nuff said...

Finals week.

Hard to stay focused on the tasks at hand both tennis and academics.

Dani is back on the court!

Happy Birthday Andreas.

Will scrimmage Queens (NY) on Friday at home.

We stay #3 in the national rankings.

More later.

Nuff said...

Off to the Sweet 16...

Your Clippers defeated Philadelphia University for the third time this season, 5-0, to advance back to the "Sweet 16" of NCAA II college tennis. After a first round bye we traveled to out of way Lehigh University to face off against the Rams. PU defeated Merrimack in the first round 5-1.

We got off to a quick start and swept the doubles. Needing only two points to advance, the usual suspects, Tamas and Andreas, raced to singles victories which completed the shutout.

Philadelphia certainly had a great year once again and I look forward to their continued improvement next season. We always have to be on our toes when we play them for sure.

Next up will be Hawai'i Pacific and our friend coach Pampulov. We played earlier this season in Las Vegas and we were able to come out on top 7-2. Of course, both teams and circumstance's were quite different back in March and we expect a very tough opponent to show up in Orlando.

It is finals week at the college so the players will have to manage their time well to succeed in the classroom and squeeze in a quality week of practice on the court.

Wish us luck.

Nuff said...