College Club Tennis (Tennis on Campus)

[dork2tennisstud]

This thread can be the first one in the official college tennis area for club tennis. I just graduated from Syracuse, where I was Captain for two years, and club tennis was a really great experience for me.

This past year I really got out act together and we had some really good players. We played at Flushing Meadows (including Armstrong Stadium) for a tournament in the fall, we won our section, and we finished top 15 at Nationals in Cary, NC (great time).

For those of you who aren't up on "Tennis on Campus," it can be as big or as little as you want. Over 200 colleges have teams, now. Some are just kids who like to play tennis and aren't very competitive and hardly ever travel. Others have 5.0 level players (kids who could play/did play for some D-1 schools) and are more serious. Generally you only practice a few times a week, though, and most matches are pretty casual except for big tournaments like Nationals.

[dork2tennisstud]

By the way, what do the other club players out there think of the WTT format they use at sectionals and nationals? I didn't like it at first, because our team was pretty big, and it excluded a lot of kids from playing in major events, but it grew on me. It was great for Nationals.

[D-Bomb]

oh wow, I've just been wondering about this. I actually have a question for you d2ss. I'm going to UCLA in the fall and I'd like to play for the traveling club team, and I know I have to try out, but I have no idea what level I've gotta be to compete. I'd call myself a 4.5 and I played #3 singles at my high school in CA (we are a decent team, quarters of sectional tourney). Ya think I've got a shot?

Oh and I'd reply to your question about the format but I don't know enough about it to have an opinion.

[tenniko]

Originally Posted by D-Bomb

oh wow, I've just been wondering about this. I actually have a question for you d2ss. I'm going to UCLA in the fall and I'd like to play for the traveling club team, and I know I have to try out, but I have no idea what level I've gotta be to compete. I'd call myself a 4.5 and I played #3 singles at my high school in CA (we are a decent team, quarters of sectional tourney). Ya think I've got a shot?

Oh and I'd reply to your question about the format but I don't know enough about it to have an opinion.

I was the captain for the UC Irvine's team and just graduated. I think if you are a solid 4.5-5.0 you have a good chance of making the UCLA Club team. They have(had?) some insane guys and it's rather competitive at UCLA I hear.

Originally Posted by dork2tennisstud

By the way, what do the other club players out there think of the WTT format they use at sectionals and nationals? I didn't like it at first, because our team was pretty big, and it excluded a lot of kids from playing in major events, but it grew on me. It was great for Nationals.

Hey, what section do you guys play on? Did you guys play Columbia in your section? I am heading out to Columbia in the fall for grad school and I think I'm going to be playing for their club team.

Nationals was fun indeed.

[dork2tennisstud]

D-Bomb, UCLA has a very strong club team . . . actually, a lot of the California schools have really good club teams (Berkeley, Stanford, USC, Irvine, Davis). I'd expect the "stars" of the team to be in the 5.0 range and the majority of the players in the 4.5 range, so you should be right in the mix. Good luck.

Tenniko: I remember your team, Irvine, being at Nationals. Yes, Syracuse and Columbia are both in the Eastern Section. Cornell's been the class of the section most years, but we beat them this year. Columbia, surprising has had a small, poorly run team the last few years. They didn't even bother coming to Sectionals this year. If you were the Captain at Irvine, I'm sure you can help get them straightened out. I imagine there's a lot more good tennis players at Columbia who just need to be convinced to play club tennis; all the other Ivy's are loaded talent.

Rutgers, Stony Brook, and UConn all have club teams that shouldn't be too far from NYC. Syracuse, Cornell, SUNY-Geneseo, RPI, Rochester, and RIT make up the rest of the Eastern Section. You should be able to find contact info on collegeclubtennis.com.

[tenniko]

Originally Posted by dork2tennisstud

D-Bomb, UCLA has a very strong club team . . . actually, a lot of the California schools have really good club teams (Berkeley, Stanford, USC, Irvine, Davis). I'd expect the "stars" of the team to be in the 5.0 range and the majority of the players in the 4.5 range, so you should be right in the mix. Good luck.

Tenniko: I remember your team, Irvine, being at Nationals. Yes, Syracuse and Columbia are both in the Eastern Section. Cornell's been the class of the section most years, but we beat them this year. Columbia, surprising has had a small, poorly run team the last few years. They didn't even bother coming to Sectionals this year. If you were the Captain at Irvine, I'm sure you can help get them straightened out. I imagine there's a lot more good tennis players at Columbia who just need to be convinced to play club tennis; all the other Ivy's are loaded talent.

Rutgers, Stony Brook, and UConn all have club teams that shouldn't be too far from NYC. Syracuse, Cornell, SUNY-Geneseo, RPI, Rochester, and RIT make up the rest of the Eastern Section. You should be able to find contact info on collegeclubtennis.com.

Yeah, I got in touch with their club. They said that the majority of players are 3.5-4.0 range. I'm sure that there are more stronger players out there, they are probably focused more on academics than in recreational tennis, since it's ivy league and all (but other ivys seem to be playing tennis...hmm...). Maybe being in the middle of NYC and not having readily accessible courts could be the reason (the club practices at some private facility away from the school).

Hopefully if the grad school work isn't too much I probably can help out a bit with their club.

[EC230]

Hey Tenniko,

I'm on the UC Davis club team and we played you guys at Nationals! Anyways, just dropping you a line to see how things are! Good luck with grad school (and welcome to the grad student community haha)!

E

[tenniko]

Hey EC230,

Yeah I remember playing you guys too, and thanks for the welcome. Mine is only a 12-month Masters program so it will be rather a short stay with the grad community.

I'm going to miss playing in California. Especially since the Nationals is moving to Arizona next year...

[weaver]

Originally Posted by D-Bomb

oh wow, I've just been wondering about this. I actually have a question for you d2ss. I'm going to UCLA in the fall and I'd like to play for the traveling club team, and I know I have to try out, but I have no idea what level I've gotta be to compete. I'd call myself a 4.5 and I played #3 singles at my high school in CA (we are a decent team, quarters of sectional tourney). Ya think I've got a shot?

Oh and I'd reply to your question about the format but I don't know enough about it to have an opinion.

Good luck sir! I think you should start hitting with more people so you get some matches in! Maybe start taking up lessons again! BTW stop beating up on the kids at camp!

[Skybox006]

Talking about Club Tennis, i was the president of club tennis at UNC Greensboro, in NC. I played all four years and was president for the last. I loved playing, especially since we made Nationals. I made a lot of friends and try to keep in touch with some. I'm not used to the WTT scoring system but I loved it and would play again any day.

[dork2tennisstud]

Anyone know what the story is with tennisoncampus.com? At college club nationals, they said it would be up my May, but obviously it isn't.

I know USTA wanted their own version of collegeclubtennis.com (the current place to go for college club info) and were hoping this would be it. They were getting tired of teams having a ranking on collegeclubtennis.com and then going to Nationals and not being seeded as high.

[10isDad]

Originally Posted by dork2tennisstud

Anyone know what the story is with tennisoncampus.com? At college club nationals, they said it would be up my May, but obviously it isn't.

I know USTA wanted their own version of collegeclubtennis.com (the current place to go for college club info) and were hoping this would be it. They were getting tired of teams having a ranking on collegeclubtennis.com and then going to Nationals and not being seeded as high.

The USTA built it into their website:

http://www.usta.com/PlayNow/College.aspx

[dork2tennisstud]

Oh, very nice. I hadn't seen that. They've had a page like that before, but it was not nearly this in depth. Thanks for the heads up.

[dork2tennisstud]

Actually, I lied, this is exactly what they had before except with updated graphics. They originally said they'd have team profiles and schedules and stuff (like collegeclubtennis.com). Maybe they decided what they had was good enough. No big deal; just wondering. Thanks again.

[randomname]

as far as ratings of club players go, you'll probably do quite well as a strong 4.5. I would say the very best players are only 5.0s and there are only a handfull of them. jorge bouffier from texas is probably the best player in club tennis right now and he has a so-so record in 5.0 play.

[MTChong]

I play Club Tennis at Dartmouth; I don't know how strong our program is as I only had one year there. In the Spring though, we did pretty well in the two tournaments we played -- one at Yale and the other at UNH.

[dork2tennisstud]

Randomname, I played Jorge in men's doubles at Nationals, this year. He and his partner (Matt something) were very good and beat me and my partner 6-2. I came away thinking he was very good, but not insane.

However, in the finals against Cal, Jorge looked damn near unbeatable by club tennis standards.

[dork2tennisstud]

MTC, I'm not really sure how strong Dartmouth is either, but I've played some other teams in your section.

Brown had an EXCELLENT team this year, and Harvard had VERY strong guys, but just so-so girls. We played Northeastern in the fall, and they were just okay. Yale seemed pretty good, though we never played them.

Brown and Harvard were definitely for real, though, but I can't tell how deep the New England section is. You should definitely try to get your team down to Syracuse this year for a tournament (they host a big one in the spring). Good luck.

[randomname]

Originally Posted by dork2tennisstud

Randomname, I played Jorge in men's doubles at Nationals, this year. He and his partner (Matt something) were very good and beat me and my partner 6-2. I came away thinking he was very good, but not insane.

However, in the finals against Cal, Jorge looked damn near unbeatable by club tennis standards.

yeah, I play at A&M so I've seen quite a bit of jorge. he isnt un-beatable there are just very few things that work well against him, if you know who the dibuas are (the giant nigerians) omon used to kick his *** pretty routinely with a serve and volley game. but jorge was playing out of his mind in the finals, cal's sub didnt even win a point when he went in, I felt bad for the guy (but not that bad, since they did just beat us). It was a real shame though, cal's girls were absolutely insane but their guys completely collapsed in the finals, I seriously think that their girl was better than their guy in mixed.

[MTChong]

Originally Posted by dork2tennisstud

MTC, I'm not really sure how strong Dartmouth is either, but I've played some other teams in your section.

Brown had an EXCELLENT team this year, and Harvard had VERY strong guys, but just so-so girls. We played Northeastern in the fall, and they were just okay. Yale seemed pretty good, though we never played them.

Brown and Harvard were definitely for real, though, but I can't tell how deep the New England section is. You should definitely try to get your team down to Syracuse this year for a tournament (they host a big one in the spring). Good luck.

Syracuse is pretty far for our team to go with a small budget. The Yale players were solid and our A team beat theirs. Surprisingly, the team that gave us the most trouble was UNH; they had a phenomenal girl playing mixed -- best hands I've seen, absolutely amazing at the net. We also played against Northeastern in the spring and won, but I don't think they had all their top guys and neither did we so it'd be hard to gauge. That said, I do hear that both Brown and Harvard are excellent teams. And unlike Harvard, I'd say our girls are much stronger than our guys.