Sorry...

...for the delay, a lot of school-work this week to catch up on after Spring Break. I'll update later today on the trip!!

Rain

Rain. It flooded my basement back home all the time, it freezes and I'm pretty sure I almost broke my tailbone falling, it froze and dried and made us practice outside and at that practice, Dylan tore his ACL (nice lob Dev), and finally, it smells bad. Today, rain has effectively made its way to the top of my Hitlist (see below). When I was a kid, I had a hitlist, but it was more of a 'I want to hit you list'. Rain occupies the top three spots followed by this girl who went to school with me for 12 years and never once stopped for a breath between words.She's probably still talking right now.

Long story short--the Western Kentucky match got rained out. Coaches said we're looking to reschedule with them and our early Spring Break is ruined. Well, he didin't say that our early Spring Break is ruined but it definitely is. All the guys love going on the road because we've got a great group but I'm sure we'll get enough time together in the upcoming week. SPRING BREAKKKK!!! I can't wait to eat my little heart out.

The women play Saturday at the Y so some of the guys are gonna come out and support. Their cheering for us at Carbondale was a serious help. I'll go more into cheering later one of these days.

In other news, the lights went out thirty minutes before practice ended indoors yesterday. I was almost positive the building was going to collapse from the wind... but I guess the lights going out and having to call practice is an acceptable alternative to having to find a new indoor facility.

South Dakota State and Florida Gulf Coast coming up.

We'll Be Ready.

 I hate you, rain.

Jake's Hitlist

1. Rain
2. Raindrops
3. Drizzles
4. The Unspeakable.

Match Week - Western Kentucky University

On Saturday we're going on the road to Bowling Green, Kentucky to play WKU. Last year we played them last on our schedule at home and pulled out the W. We've met them already this year at the Peay Invite but teams often change between semesters because of the difference in graduation dates internationally.

As far as our play, we're hitting a lot of balls this week to make sure we're in rhythm going into the match. Today, we did the Monday conditioning at practice and as the week goes on, we focus less on conditioning and more on hitting. The agility drills are really helpful in building explosiveness and we usually use those as conditioning during match weeks as opposed to the endurance running. I'm not as fast as I'd like to be from ball to ball so I'm never opposed to agility instead of the pace runs.

Our doubles teams are improving every practice. Chemistry plays a huge role in our combinations. So, the more repititions we get in our pairs, the more comfortable we are knowing which shots our teammates are gonna take and what they're gonna do with it.

 Today I'm gonna talk a bit about doubles. We did more individual things today with our warmup partners so I didn't get to see a lot of the guys playing singles. All I know is that Mo kicked me in the singles drills as usual but it's alright... I'm still prettier.

I got to play with Dyllie today against Diesel and Wash. The two of them play a ton together and their serves are MASSIVE. WABOW. BANG BANG. So, it's tough to get into a returning rhythm but we did pretty well once we relaxed some. We lost, but we play pretty comfortably together. I'm confident in all of the guys' shots on any day playing dubs with them. Diesel is a psycho in dubs. That's all I can really say about that. Mo and I are hitting well and Dylan and Mortey are building chemistry (they've only played a few matches together). It was a good practice today. A good mix of drilling, points and conditioning.

- In other news, Wash hit me with a ball in tringles today and I'm pretty sure Dylan ruptured my kidney with a ball he threw at me after Diesel and Mo's singles breaker. I WILL GET THEM BOTH. I PROMISE YOU THIS. I PROMISE. YES YOU DYLAN AND YOU WASHUTA. I SEE YOU.

Nic and Dev... I didn't get to see too much of besides Nic's winners in tringles. THUG.

4 days until WKU. We'll be ready.

So It Begins...

Welcome everyone!! This is the new blog for the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Men's Tennis Team. The blog is long overdue and there is a good chance that the only people who are really gonna read this are my teammates. In which case, I could probably just talk to them... It's nice to document the season and random things that come up like Diesel rapping or something. Hopefully I'll be able to make the page look better but that's later. The first real post will come later today once I figure this all out. I'm sure the guys will post here and there so you won't have to hear my boring writing all the time... I'd just like to say that it's very awkward writing to 'you' because I have no idea who, if anyone, is ever gonna read this. That's it for this one.

This year is different.

-Jake, formerly known as Ninja, Aka tall dark and handsome and athletic and intelligent