Mother Nature has had a bruising impact on OCC tennis race

  • By Brian Questel
  • April 27, 2011
  • 281
                        
It’s been a long confusing spring for Ohio Cardinal Conference tennis teams. With less than l0 days before the OCC tournament is scheduled to be played, the rankings and standings were up in the air thanks to an exceptionally wet spring in northeast Ohio. Wooster was 5-4 but only 2-0 in the OCC, having defeated West Holmes and Mansfield Senior. With seeding critical to formatting the OCC tournament, which is scheduled for May 7 at The College of Wooster, the lack of the other five matches has given this season an unknown quality. Wooster was scheduled to get those matches in, noted Wooster coach Stan Burris. Three were to be played this past week (April 22-27) and then two more in the week leading up to the OCC tournament – provided the predicted rains that have plagued this spring remain at bay. “Everyone is in the same situation,” said Burris. “I’m sure we would (seed) by coaches’ vote if we don’t get the matches in. There hasn’t been one time when we haven’t played everything. Typically everything gets done. “I hope it gets done. I’m not sure what the protocol would be otherwise. “If we don’t have head-to-head, we’d have to talk up the players the best you can in terms of seeds. Everyone’s frustrated … It will be interesting to see. We could go into Saturday without having everything done. “It’s easier when we have head-to-head results and people have confidence where we place the first three seeds. We draw pills after the first three are placed, so it’s the luck of the draw after that. It could be difficult in terms of information because we may not know as much as we usually do.” Given the weather, Burris has been happy with how Wooster has performed to this point. “We’re doing OK,” he said. “We’ve had some decent results against decent teams and we’ve been close. Everyone is in the same boat -- no one playing consistently. Everyone is trying to do the best they can with the situation they have. We couldn’t be doing any better based on the situation. “The problem is when you get rained out from a match, you are also not able to practice. You’re going inside and have limited court space. It’s not like you got a day off and you can get a bunch of stuff done. We don’t have the court space availability, so we try to hit and stay in shape the best we can until the next opportunity.” Wooster was scheduled to play OCC matches against Clear Fork, Ashland and Orrville this past week and then Lexington and Madison in the lead up to the OCC tournament, which is slated for The College of Wooster “if it’s dry,” said Burris. “We’ll know a lot more if we get those matches in,” he added. And should Mother Nature bring the hammer down on the tournament, “then we will be at Lexington’s indoor courts if it’s cold and wet or just plain wet.”


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