Kwame Christian gets a ride from Campus Safety Services at 10 p.m. several days a week to get to West Campus. The co-president of the Ohio State tennis club needs the ride to get to get to the Jesse Owens West tennis center for practice – which is becoming more crucial as the team prepares for the national stage.
ZACH TUGGLE/THE LANTERNMembers of the club tennis team pose last week on a practice court.The team is preparing for a national tournament held by the United States Tennis Association in Arizona, which is “the pinnacle of the Tennis On Campus program,” according to the USTA Web site. Christian said the OSU club team competed in Wisconsin last month to qualify as one of the top 64 schools to attend the national tournament. They lost to Purdue in the round-robin match but later came to a second match and defeated them.
“We came back and beat them in the brackets when it mattered the most,” said Christian, a junior in psychology.
As a club team, the co-ed group has to fund its own costs such as travel and uniforms. They have after-hours practices and balance classwork and their commitment to the team without the perks of varsity athletics. They don’t have a coach or the funds to pay for a trainer, so all critiques for improvement come from within the team.
But they find the club tennis experience worth its costs.
“We just love tennis,” Christian said.
ZACH TUGGLE/THE LANTERNTennis club member Radhika Mehta takes a swing at practice last Thursday.He said the players have demanding class schedules and keep school their first priority, but have been especially devoted to practice as the national tournament approaches.
“We’ve definitely been practicing more. We’ve been coming in three or four times a week,” said Saumil Modi, a sophmore in biology.
The team’s first match will be 10 a.m. on April 15, against the University of Massachusetts.
Elizabeth Ramos can be reached at [email protected].
