Jan. 24, 2007
The University of Texas-Pan American women's tennis team possesses the perfect combination of talent that will look to enhance their own strengths while exploiting their opponent's weaknesses in the upcoming 2007 campaign.
The Lady Broncs are set to take on all challengers with what head men's and women's tennis coach Rob Hubbard thinks could be the best group of student-athletes ever to don the Green and Orange.
"We've got all eight scholarships out for the first time. It's a good mixture this season with two transfers coming in as juniors, who give us some good experience at the top of the lineup, and we've got four really good freshmen that we have coming in also," said Hubbard.
The squad of four juniors and four freshmen gives the Lady Broncs the perfect blend of experience and leadership along with a fresh perspective and young talent to give UTPA a chance to stand toe-to-toe with any foe they face on the court in the upcoming campaign.
"I think we are in a really good position as far as leadership goes, having four juniors and specifically having Silke return as last year's captain. Giana and Julia already have two years of collegiate experience under their belts and have been really great at helping the freshmen this fall," Hubbard added.
The Lady Broncs are only losing one key player in Elysia Sloan, and will look to depend on its strong class of juniors to lead the way. Sloan recorded her best season in 2006, notching a 7-11 record in singles' play while recording 20 singles and 20 doubles' wins for her career.
"Elysia left us and I would have loved to have her and her experience. She was a strong doubles' player so there's a little bit of a loss there, but I feel at this point we are considerably stronger than last year," said Hubbard.
Silke Buksik (Waiblingen, Germany/Salier-Gymnasium Waiblingen) returns as the team captain for the second consecutive season, and is coming off a sophomore season in which she was selected to the National Independent All-Tournament Team. Most recently, Buksik ended the fall season with straight-set wins over Texas State and UTEP.
"Silke has been a delight for me to work with. She's been through some rough times the past two years with the team. She's excited with the level of players that have come in not only make the team better, but they make her better because it provides better competition for her and someone to push her. As a leader for us, she's been through some tough times here and now she's experiencing some of the better times," said Hubbard.
Junior Nicole Garcia (Cibolo, TX/Lee College) also returns to the team, adding experience and depth to the new-look squad. Garcia recorded a 7-11 singles' record during the 2006 season at the number-five position and teamed with Buksik in the number-one doubles' position where the duo finished with a 7-9 overall record.
"Nikki is playing a lot better this year than she was playing last year and brings a lot of doubles' experience to the team. She and Silke have worked well together, playing number-one doubles for us last year, and this fall they played number-three doubles for us. They saw some success so I'm looking to see continued improvement out of Nikki. Her experience will help with some of the freshmen as well," said Hubbard.
The Lady Broncs feature a pair of local talents in Sheila Mabulac (Edinburg, TX/Edinburg H.S.) and Jessica Nanez (Hidalgo, TX/Hidalgo H.S.) that didn't play in the fall, but have returned to the team for the spring season.
"They were here when I arrived last year, but were inexperienced in the tournament arena. Both of them worked very hard and improved tremendously. I was a little sad that they decided not to play in the fall, but late in the fall, they came and spoke with me, and I definitely wanted them back on the team," said Hubbard.
Giana Oliveira (Santa Anna, Brazil/Eckerd College) and Julia Cirne-Lima (Porto Alegre, Brazil/Eckerd College) are new to the Lady Broncs' tennis team, but are not new to each other as they played their previous two seasons as teammates at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, FL. The Brazil natives saw success in the fall season, playing in the number-one and -two spots, respectively.
"Giana brings a lot of experience and is a strong doubles' player and an even stronger singles' player. She's an all-around player with her strong serve, volley skills and baseline play. I think with the makeup of the team she will continue to improve because we have such strong competition among each other," said Hubbard.
"Julia by far is the best doubles' player on the team, and she is probably one of the best competitors on the squad. She despises losing and takes it personally. Julia will give you everything on the court," added Hubbard.
Newcomer Sarah Burton (Oakville, Ontario, Canada/Oakville Trafalgar H.S.) lacks some of the experience as some of the other new faces on the squad, but has a tremendous upside with her power and athleticism.
"We'll have to develop Sarah a little further. She has a beautiful back-hand, and she can have a lot of power on her serve. She just doesn't have the tournament experience that the other players have because she started a little later, but she's a quick study. She's a really good athlete and has a really good build for tennis so I look for her to be very good for us down the road," said Hubbard.
Another pair of newcomers familiar with one another is Megan Bedeau (Scarborough, Ontario, Canada/Northview Heights S.S.) and Stephanie Willerding (Toronto, Ontario, Canada/Northview Heights S.S.). The Canada natives give an added layer of depth to a Lady Broncs' squad that has talent up and down the lineup.
"Megan has tremendous power at times, and right now we're trying to harness that power. She has the ability to hit some very big shots, but right now we're trying to develop her consistency a little more," said Hubbard.
The friendship developed between Bedeau and Willerding came as a blessing to Hubbard as he was able to add the talented duo to the squad before the fall season.
"Stephanie is best friends with Megan, and they both came down on the recruiting trip together so it was almost a package deal for Megan and Stephanie. Stephanie is a strong hitter from the baseline, and she possesses power from both her forehand and her backhand. I think she's going to have a very good college career," said Hubbard.
The UTPA will look to the Southland Conference to find most of its opponents during the 2007 campaign, and with a multitude of talent from the bottom to the top of the roster, the squad is heading into the season with strong leadership, young talent and a group of competitive newcomers that will look to etch their own chapter in the history of Lady Bronc tennis.
"Even though we are not in a conference, eight or nine of our matches are against Southland Conference teams, and we would like to win as many of those conference matches as we can," Hubbard said
The tale of the season will be a long one for the Lady Broncs, but with every match lays a new challenge, and a new opportunity to revitalize the tradition of UTPA women's tennis. With a balanced line-up sporting the Green and Orange, the 2007 campaign could be one of the most productive seasons in program history.
"We are extremely competitive with everyone on our lineup this year, and that's not something we've been able to say in the past. We have strength in the top of our lineup, but even more important is we have strength at the bottom so I think we are going to be competitive with whoever we step on the court with, I think right now this team could possibly be the best team we've ever had at Pan-Am, but only the season can tell us," concluded Hubbard.
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