MIAMI SHORES, Fla. -- A couple days before the Buccaneers men's tennis team departed for this weekend's three-match trip, longtime coach
George Samuel's voice inflexion was starting to climb. He was eagerly awaiting the opportunity to see how his team would respond to the impending challenges.
Wait no more, that opportunity is here.
No. 7 Barry (11-3, 3-0 Sunshine State Conference) will play at No. 2 Saint Leo (14-1, 3-0) at 2:30 p.m. Friday in a match to air on the
Lions Network and can be accessed via
LIVE STATS. The winner will have a leg up on the league's regular season title.
"We're really looking forward to it," Samuel said. "It is one of the few matches that we are going to have that are (NCAA) Division II and that are important to us to see where we are standing right now. We've had a few ups and downs through the beginning of the year. Things are starting to improve as we're going along, but these types of matches are the test. Hopefully these types of matches are the ones we get up to play for the most. The same things goes for when we go into conference play, regional play and hopefully nationals."
The Bucs will play No. 5 Lander (14-2) at 2 p.m. Saturday in Saint Leo, Florida, in another stern challenge before returning to SSC play for a date with Eckerd (12-5, 0-3) in St. Petersburg 10 a.m. Sunday.
Saint Leo has three nationally-ranked singles players in Alberto Barroso-Campos, Egor Panyushkin and Alex Theiler, while Jaime Bueno is ranked in the South Region. Barroso-Campos and Theiler are nationally-ranked in doubles, and Francisco Aparicio and Fons Verberne own a regional pairs ranking. Lander's Chris Devoize, Marc Hofer and Loic Minery each own singles rankings, while Devoize and Alexander Regner are ranked in doubles.
Barry's
Ahmed Triki and
Fabian Pronnet hold national singles rankings, while
Nico Dreer and
Renato Lombardi are among the four Bucs who own regional rankings. Triki and Lombardi are nationally-ranked in doubles, and Pronnet and
Daniel Ventura have a South Region ranking in pairs play.
"I think it's going to (require) 100 percent dedication from those matches. That's what it's going to take. The motivation for those matches, the excitement to get into those matches," Samuel said. "I think we've lacked it in a few, especially when we would play non-Division II, non-regional (teams). These are the ones that are going to really make the difference I hope, and I'm hoping to get the guys really excited about playing. That's what I think the key is going to be for us."
LIVE STREAM vs. SAINT LEOLIVE STATS vs. SAINT LEO
