Golf, tennis, track and field travel for weekend tournaments
Will Hoogendyk IV, Campus Carrier sports editor
It’s been another successful year in Mount Berry for Vikings athletics. The fall season saw Berry take four SAA conference championships out of the six sports that were contested. Winter sports continued to add to the success with volleyball and men’s basketball each adding a conference crown. Thus far, the spring has yielded only a runner-up finish from the women’s indoor track and field team, but six teams will be in competition this weekend looking to increase Berry’s total.
Men’s and women’s tennis, golf, and track and field are all scheduled to play this weekend for SAA conference championships. The golf and track and field programs are headed to Dickson and Sewanee Tennessee respectively, while Viking tennis will travel to Little Rock, Ark. for their championship action.
Senior Lacey Craig and graduate Sakura Manning play doubles together on the women’s tennis team and are excited to improve on the team’s second-place finish from last season.
“We’ve been working a lot on different shot selection and taking the ball off the rise,” Manning said. “I’ve been seeing a lot of improvements within my teammates and myself so, I’m really excited to see that all come together because I think we’re there.”
The men and women will have their work cut out for them as they enter a tournament that Sewanee has dominated for over a decade. Both Sewanee programs have one seeds for the tournament and come in only having lost one SAA championship ever in the sport. The men head to Arkansas with a number four ranking, and the women with a number three. In Head Coach Doug Elly’s second year at the helm of Vikings tennis, the women’s team has made it a goal to practice with increasing discipline throughout the year.
“We’ve been pinpointing the teams that we’ve played and said, ‘These are their weaknesses, these are their strengths’,” Craig said. “We’ve been actively thinking about the teams as we practice.”
Part of this slight change in strategy is due to a shift in the way scoring will work during both the men’s and women’s tennis tournaments. While teams will still play six lines of singles and three lines of doubles, doubles matches will be scored on a majority-wins basis. In years past all three doubles lines counted for a point each, while this year a team will only have to win at least two out of three to secure a point. The total number of points available for all lines shrunk from nine to seven as a school will need just four points to win and move onto the next round instead of five.
Like tennis, collegiate golf is an individual sport that necessitates a team appeal when sponsored by schools. For Jay Sanders, a junior on the men’s golf team, it means he gets to be one of the six members of the team that travels to Greystone Golf Club to tee off. Both golf teams left Wednesday afternoon for Dickson, Tennessee where they will play a practice round on Thursday and then participate in a three-day 36-hole tournament from Friday through Sunday.
“Usually in other tournaments you play five and you take the four low scores of the round,” Sanders said. “For conference you play six guys take the low four so you have another guy to help out.”
For men’s and women’s golf there will be both team and individual champions as their scores will be compiled over the course of the weekend. Sanders is excited to play at Greystone and has been practicing his short game to give himself and his teammates their best shot at victory.
“We’ve been working more on chipping around the green and making some shorter putts especially from the five to 15-foot range,” Sanders said. “Chipping-wise, getting it within a certain area around the hole, within four or five feet.”
For Sanders and the rest of the men’s team, Oglethorpe will be the biggest foes to overcome as they historically have the most success as a team and individually. Sewanee too, will be difficult to catch on the leaderboard, but after beating the Tigers earlier this year, Sanders is confident they can replicate the feat. For the women’s team, it will be an effort to dethrone Centre from atop the SAA. The Colonels have won the last four team titles and three of the last four individual crowns.
Berry isn’t without their own success in the SAA, as the men’s outdoor track and field team is seeking their fourth straight conference championship. Senior Jahari Jones is excited for the opportunity to continue the Vikings reign of dominance. When asked about how he advises his underclassmen teammates on how to deal with the atmosphere surrounding a big tournament like this one he emphasized staying focused.
“Don’t let the moment be bigger than you,” Jones said. “Take all that energy in and use it to run your race, because at the end of the day, track is a unique sport where you can run not so bad or not so good, but it’s a numbers game and it’s going to only set you up for what’s to come.”
Jones and the team are seeking to become the third team this year to complete a conference four-peat, hoping to join women’s volleyball and men’s cross country on that list. Both outdoor track and field programs are competing on Friday and Saturday for a chance to compete in the NCAA DIII National Championships.