Tennis a confident squad

When the No. 25 Hurricanes’ women’s tennis team takes the court in Tallahassee today for a match against rival Florida State, it will be only five days removed from a tough loss against William and Mary.

But the Hurricanes have in no way lost their confidence.

“We’re going to win,” senior Marcy Hora said. “Guaranteed.”

Hora and the rest of the Hurricanes embark on a weekend of tennis, beginning at 2:00 p.m. against the Seminoles. Tomorrow afternoon, Miami faces off against the Harvard Crimson.

Hora may be confident, but head coach Paige Yaroshuk sees some things Miami needs to work on.

“In order to get to the next level, we are going to have to work on attacking,” Yaroshuk said. “We need to continue working on shortening our points, from one to six.”

Last weekend, Miami suffered their first two losses of the season, falling to No. 44 Virginia Commonwealth 5-2, and 19th-ranked William and Mary, 4-3. In the latter match, the Hurricanes were on the short end of a 10-8 tiebreaker in the third set of the deciding match.

“William and Mary was just one of those matches where you come up just short in every big point,” Yaroshuk said. “It happens to every team and I’m glad it happened to us now than further down the line.”

Sophomore Mari Toro continues to be a bright spot for the Hurricanes. The sophomore transfer, ranked No. 63 nationally, won her No. 1 singles match in straight sets over Jessyca Arthur 6-3, 7-5.

“We knew, coming into this season, just how good Mari was,” Yaroshuk said. “We believed in her and she continues to do great things for our program.”

With her squad’s record now at 6-2, Yaroshuk hopes that Miami can put the William and Mary loss behind them and concentrate for Florida State. Hora, however, has already done just that.

“We always look forward to playing Florida State,” Hora said. “However, we’ve worked on our conditioning and that has made us stronger and better prepared, and we’re going to win, it’s that simple.”

The men’s squad, ranked No. 35, received mixed results last weekend. On Saturday, the Hurricanes had no trouble dismantling Western Michigan, 6-1.

But Miami then had to face seventh ranked Notre Dame, and were soundly defeated, 6-1. That loss dropped the men’s record to 2-3, and has caused the team to alter some of its expectations, at least for right now.

“Right now, we needed to come back and focus on our practices, and take it one match at a time,” said senior Jose Lieberman. “We want to get back in the top 20 eventually, but right now, we can’t focus on the rankings.”

Tonight, the Hurricanes return to the Neil Schiff Tennis Center, as they host Florida A&M at 6:00 p.m. Lieberman is looking for strong play from the team, right from the beginning.

“We need to come out and be really intense, right from the get-go,” Lieberman said. “This should help both our singles and doubles play.”