By Justin Smith / Special to The Tuscaloosa News
The Alabama men’s tennis team continued its fast start to the season with a, 4-2, win over Harvard on Sunday at the Roberta Alison Baumgardner Tennis Facility.
The Crimson Tide took the early advantage by taking care of business in doubles action to take an 1-0 lead. The two teams traded set wins and set up a 3-2 score. Alabama senior Mazen Osama clinched the win for the Crimson Tide with a singles win against Andy Zhou.
“I felt, coming into this match, that we would be sharper today than we were on Friday,” Alabama coach George Husak said. “We did not have a lot of preparation for Friday’s match. Going into today, we came out firing in both singles and doubles. I did not think for one moment that Harvard would stop fighting.”
This win pushes the Crimson Tide, ranked No. 21, to 6-0. UA looks to take advantage of its fast start and Husak said he feels the early success is a result of the work in practice.
“One of our players said our matches feels like a practice,” Husak said. “That does not mean any disrespect to the opposing teams, but we are playing like we are practicing. Our practices are focused on very specific game plans. We are trying to have that same intensity in practice.”
Alabama is loaded with experienced players as the team returns all its players from last season’s squad (20-13) that posted wins in the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament and a first-round loss in the NCAA Championships to Texas A&M.
Osama is the Crimson Tide’s lone senior. If his experience at the capstone has taught him anything, it’s that his teammates must not get ahead of themselves.
“We take things match by match,” Osama said. “Our record is now 6-0, but when we go into our next match, it is 0-0. We have to do the same thing that we do in every match and we have to remain disciplined.”
Alabama hosts Minnesota (2-1) on Friday at 6 p.m.
