MIAMI SHORES, Fla. -- Barry University's men's tennis team felt like something was missing this year. Now the No. 2 Buccaneers have a chance to fill that void.
Barry opens the Sunshine State Conference Tournament 3:30 p.m. Thursday when it meets No. 44 Florida Southern in the quarterfinals. The Bucs (17-2) shut out the Mocs (8-10) nine days ago in the final SSC regular season match. The winner will play either Lynn or Rollins in Friday's semifinals. The championship match is set for 1 p.m. Saturday.
"What I like about this tournament is the field is getting strong now," Barry 27-year men's coach
George Samuel said.
Last year, the Bucs opened up with a shutout win over Eckerd -- a team that did not qualify for this year's eight-team postseason event. With the addition of Palm Beach Atlantic and Embry-Riddle -- both who qualified this season -- to the conference this year, the men's tournament presents a tougher road to achieve championship glory. Samuel knows that. He talks about it without mincing his words. Now he wants his players to buy into it.
"Conference is always an important tournament to me," said Samuel, the two-time National Coach of the Year and Barry's all-time winningest head coach in any sport. "Hopefully it is to the guys. There's other things riding on it, like regional seeding and nationals."
Barry won the league tournament a year ago, beating Lynn, 5-1, in the finals. The Buccaneers have won 13 SSC Tournament championships, including five of the past six.
This season, the Buccaneers are 80-22 in singles and 39-18 in doubles.
Vivien Versier leads the team with 15 singles victories.
Daniel Ventura has 14,
Pierre Montrieul 11 and
Carlos Gomez 10. Gomez and Versier are 10-1 in doubles.
Blake Bayldon and Montrieul are 7-1.
Fernando Tous and
Filip Zupancic are 5-4 together, while
Matias Larregina and Tous are coming off their first win as a team.
"I hope we come together strong as a team," Samuel said, "to play some of our best tennis this year."
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