Florida A&M University’s men’s tennis team has claimed big wins in its last three tournaments and hopes to keep this momentum going as it prepares take on Alcon State, University of Louisiana at Lafayette and Prairie View A&M in a head-to-head weekend tournament in New Orleans.
This season has been rigorous for the university’s Rattlers, but they have managed to push through and turn things around, by improving to 4-3.
“I feel as if we are a really strong team,” Temuera Asafu-Adjaye said. “I think we had a few matches that haven’t showed that but beating Jacksonville University this past Sunday 5-1 said a lot about our abilities.
“We have a few more tough teams to play this season that will display how strong we are,” Asafu-Adjaye added.
The Rattlers are have won their last three matches and head coach Carl Goodman said the team has focused on serving the ball and finishing matches early in the season.
“During practice we have emphasized perfecting on our serves, returns as well as closing out matches strong,” Goodman said. “We look forward to improving our season record by taking another match back home with us after this weekend’s tournament.
Goodman said out the seven matches the team has played thus far, beating Lafayette would be a great accomplishment for his team. In previous matchups, the two teams have battled it out. Lafayette beat FAMU 3-0 one year and the Rattlers came back the following year and redeemed themselves with a 2-1 victory.
The team has been competing seemingly non-stop for the past view weeks. Goodman allowed the team to take this past Monday off, allowing their bodies to rejuvenate and prepare for practice for their remainder of the week as well as the weekend’s competition.
“I always expect the unexpected,” Chidi Gabriel said. “I expect the person I’m going to play to play their best; therefore I’m going to give it my all in practice so that I can out-play the person I compete against that day.”