For the first time, the Brandeis Tennis Club (BTC) hosted eight visiting teams for the Slice N ’Deis club tennis tournament. Eight schools from the New England area traveled to Brandeis to compete in the two pools offered.
Slice N ’Deis tournament was the first large-scale club tennis tournament that the BTC hosted. Teams within each pool began play on Saturday, Sept. 24. Each team played the teams within their pool, and then matchups for the final match were chosen based on the results of each pool. The winner of the first pool would play the winner of the second pool to determine the tournament champion.
The matches were scored based on a tally of the number of individual games won in each match, and the team with the most games would advance. With this format, “It’s very important to fight for every game because it can make a difference,” said current president Lian Gersh ’17.
Northeastern University ended the tournament claiming first prize of the first-ever Slice N ’Deis Brandeis Club Tennis tournament, according to Gersh, while the BTC finished in seventh place overall. The results of the tournament will be used for seeding purposes at Sectionals, which occur in late October at Harvard University.
The BTC is a relatively new club on campus, established in 2013. Gersh has witnessed every part of its inception. After the club’s inauguration during her first year, its future seemed short-lived, and the organization “kind of fell apart for a year,” Gersh said.
With the help of now alumnus Kevin Dupont ’16, Gersh rebuilt the club, which now sees 15 to 25 players at every practice.
The club practices three times a week, two of which are dedicated to two-hour hits while the other is scheduled for conditioning.
The club caters to various different skill levels. Broken down into an A Team, a B Team and a squad for recreational play, every member has the opportunity to practice weekly and participate in competitive match play.
The majority of matches for the club tennis team are scheduled in the fall semester, due to the number of school breaks and the greater amount of practice space.
Recently, the team traveled to Sectionals to compete against other New England college club tennis programs in the fall of 2015. In the spring 2016 semester, the team took a major trip to Tucson, AZ, to compete in a National Invitational. As for now, the team does not have any upcoming plans for travel for this academic year.
Gersh expects the club to develop well over the next few years. “I am excited to welcome our new club and team members,” she said. “We have a very young team this year, and I cannot wait to see them continue to play amazing tennis.”
