Tulane Quotes Previewing The Memphis Collegiate Invitational
Sep 16, 2010 | Women's Tennis
Sept. 16, 2010
Head Coach Terri Sisk
On The Season-Opening Weekend At The Memphis Collegiate Invitational
"We had an amazing year last year. We were 13-9, we got up to No. 67 in the national rankings and obviously we're looking to build on that for this upcoming year. We're returning all 10 players and we've added a talented freshman from California, Katherine Cecil. We're looking to maybe start a little fresh this year, put her into situations that are very stressful right here at the beginning of the season to let her adapt quickly. This field that we're going to in Memphis has a lot of talented teams in it. We're just looking forward to continue to show everyone that we're getting better."
On The Importance of Getting Off To A Good Start
"You always want to get off to a good start. You always want to come out and make things happen quickly. You want to make sure that your doubles teams are connecting and doing everything right. But at the beginning of the year, it's always a little bit tough because the girls have had three to four months off - no with the coaches here at Tulane and not with the strength coaches. You look to see if you have any weaknesses. You look to see how we are mentally preparing or reacting to certain situations. I'm sure this weekend we'll see a lot of good things that we've been working on. At the same time, I'm sure we'll see some weaknesses and that's to be expected at the beginning of the year. We're just ready to get there. We're ready to start playing and we're ready to start competing. It gets a little monotonous to play within the team the past three or four weeks. We want some fresh faces to compete against and we want to see how we stack up."
On If She Will Be Focusing More On Winning Matches Or Seeing Technical Progression
"We spent these past three weeks working on a lot of things - a lot of basics and a lot of technical issues. We really try to not impose our will in that `we have to win' and `we have to this.' We just want to see that they understand what we're talking about in practice and that they're actually working on the technical things that we might have changed. That's our goal. I've told the girls it's not about winning, it's about doing things right. The wins will take care of themselves. We're just looking for a lot of good attitude, a lot of great effort, a lot of team spirit and making sure we understand what's going on inside of a point."
Sophomore Hila Elster
On The Team's Goals For The Season-Opening Weekend
"Our goals for the weekend are to come out really strong this year. We're a better team. We've practice really hard these past weeks. Last year was a good one for us and we're improving. We're going to play hard, be really aggressive, come to the net and work on the things we've done in practice. What's important to us is team spirit. We're going to come in united, play together, cheer for each other and just be really strong and aggressive."
On The Difference For Her Being A Sophomore As Opposed To Last Season
"We're really excited. Coming in last year, we were freshmen and it was hard since we were new. This year being our second year, things are going much better both on and off the court. It's exciting and we can't wait for this year."
On If She Feels The Team Is Close Both On And Off The Tennis Courts
"We spend a lot of time together outside of tennis. We are all really, really close to each other. We're like a family. We do a lot of stuff together on the weekends. We're really united and together. It's really important for the team to be close, I think. That won't be a problem for us."
Players Mentioned
