On April 11, UCSB’s club tennis team competed in the 2013 United States Tennis Association Tennis On Campus National Championship, a tournament drawing on over 600 college campuses across the nation hosted in Surprise, Arizona.

The USTA Tennis on Campus tournament accepts only the top 64 colleges and universities in the country for their national competition. This year, UCSB’s club team sent seven of its members, including Samantha Chou, Justin Vea, Ethan Nadler, Kevin Young, Daniel Reinhart and Christina and Robin Young.

According to United States Tennis Association spokesperson Trina Singian, the tournament enables collegiate athletes to form positive relationships with competitors and their own personal goals.

“The USTA’s Tennis On Campus program is designed to provide college students with opportunities for team camaraderie, social networking and rivaled competition through tennis,” Singian said. “Tennis On Campus offers co-ed team-based play, regional and national championship competition, and helps students maintain active and healthy lifestyles through their college years.”

According to third-year computer science major and club tennis captain Daniel Reinhart, not only has the team placed 21st in the country, but this is the third season in a row the UCSB club tennis team has made the national tournament in their six years together.

“Although we would have liked to have done better in the tournament, we still had an amazing time are looking forward to next year,” Reinhart said. “Fortunately, out of the six that went to nationals only one is graduating so we are expecting to have an even stronger team next year with incoming freshman and transfer students to add to the team.”

Tennis club team captain and second-year chemistry major Kevin Young said the team’s success can be attributed to their intensive training regime and the leadership of their team trainer, Ben Oler.

“The reason we were able to make it to Nationals was not based on sheer luck. It was, however, based completely off hard work and determination from each of our members that eventually paid off,” Young said. “Our team trainer has done an incredible job of whipping our team into top notch shape. In order to qualify for Nationals we had to overcome many obstacles, one of which was crushing USC and wiping the smug grin off their faces.”

According to Young, though the team had their sights set on victory, the highlight of their trip revolved around team bonding.

“When everyone is rooting and striving for the same cause, an inevitable sense of camaraderie washes over every member on the team and instead of being seven individuals, we become one,” Young said.

Tennis club practices are every Tuesday at 7 p.m. and every Friday at 5 p.m. at the Rec Cen tennis courts.

 

 

A version of this article appeared on page 5 of the April 25th, 2013’s print edition of the Nexus
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