The Rattler Men’s tennis team will be starting their conference tennis match this Saturday in Sumter, SC.
All season long, Florida A&M has been participating in non-conference tennis matches to prepare them for what is about to come.
“The hard part is out the way,” coach Carl Goodman said. “I expect to do well against these schools during this conference play.”
This weekend, the team will take on Norfolk State University (Saturday), University of Maryland Eastern Shore (Sunday), Hampton University (Monday), North Carolina Central University (Monday), and Nicholls State on Tuesday.
“We’ve played quality teams such as Alcorn State and Prairie View A&M,” Goodman said. “I believe this has prepared us in numerous of ways.”
The team felt they needed a break to get their minds and bodies prepared for the upcoming conference games.
“This is our first practice all week,” Michael Moore said. “Our bodies needed time to rest from our game last weekend.”
The Rattler men may not have come out on top last week’s games, but believe it was the lost that build the fire within to want to win the upcoming conference games.
“It was a close-run against Georgia State last week,” Levan Clark said. “However, Sunday we came back and won.”
With the tennis conference being days away, the team is coming up with strategic plans to assure they win every match.
“We’re trying to play most of the teams in the Southern Division while in Sumter,” Goodman said. “More than likely, Hampton will be in the Northern Division.”
As long as the team wins all of its games in conference, the Rattlers will be in good standing.
“All previous matches have been a tougher because they were non-conference games,” Moore said. “I have a feeling that we’ll win all our games this weekend.”
The Rattlers have high confidence that they’ll come out with wins across the board.
“NCCU may be an issue considering it’s out second game on Monday afternoon,” Goodman said.
It’s important that the team is well-rested and have enough energy to keep up with teams like Hampton, which is ranked #1 in the Northern Division right now.
“As long as we keep our heads in the game, I know we’ll be fine,” Moore said.