Written by Ray Pack

A seven match road trip is on the horizon for the Valdosta State men’s tennis team.

The tennis team will be traveling from Georgia to Alabama to Florida for this testing road trip. 

This trip will consist of a match up against the No.1 Armstrong Atlantic State.

“We’re probably not gonna be to confident going into the match, their the best team in the country. So its gonna be very tough, but I hope we can at least win a couple of matches. Its gonna be very hard to win the whole thing,” Konstantine Kutschenko, lone senior tennis player, said.

Tammo Haake, sophomore tennis player, agrees with his teammate that it won’t be an easy match.

“Tough to say, I mean three losses in the row against Barry, Lynn, and Columbus. Armstrong won the championship last year. Tough to play against them anyways, we play away. I mean we have to play our best,” Haake said.

The road trip consists of three conference games against: Shorter, Alabama-Huntsville, and North Alabama. These conference games will be critical to the seeding in the Gulf South Conference competition.

“We have not played Shorter since the 80’s. I do not know what to expect they always had a good team. Huntsville has a new coach, new players and they put a lot of money in the program, They should be vastly improved since last year. North Alabama is about the same from last year, that is our guess,” Coach John Hansen said.

Kutschenko is confident when it comes to Gulf Conference match-ups.

“All three games are really important especially against North Alabama and Alabama-Huntsville. Its gonna be really important for us to win these matches,” Kutschenko said. “Next week we should win all three matches.”

Haake anticipates victory.

“I hope we do well. Last year we won against them, first time we play against Shorter, it would be nice if we could win all three of them before spring break,” Haake said.

Following spring break, the men come back to take a trip to Pensacola to end their road trip against: Concordia College – New York, Mississippi College, William Carey.

“Pensacola is always a fun trip, usually some teams we never seen before, that is always fun. Concordia could be one of those teams that win the National Championship this year. Very very good team. I do not know a thing about (William Carey), its to early to start researching,” Hansen said.

Kutschenko, who has tennis elbow (inflammation of the elbow), participated in a limited practice today, but he is confident to play in Pensocola.

“After the three matches next week we’re all going to need some rest. Everybody is tired now, last three matches where pretty intense for all of us. We are going to make sure we are ready again for the matches in Pensacola,” Kutschenko said.

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