UPDATE: Due to inclement weather, the home opener vs. St. Thomas scheduled for Thursday (Feb. 5) has been postponed. NSUSharks.com will update with the new date and time as soon as it is official.FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The No. 35 Nova Southeastern University tennis team will have their first serve of the spring season Thursday with a home opener against St. Thomas, before hitting the road for two matches this upcoming weekend.
The Sharks were just recently chosen sixth in the Sunshine State Conference preseason coaches' poll and are preseason No. 35 in the ITA national poll, sixth among SSC teams. In the ITA South Region rankings, the team is ninth in the South (with seven SSC squads in the top 10).
"We're very excited about the spring season, the team has worked extremely hard on and off the court," said head coach Stephen Schram. "We have some very good players returning back from last year and some great new additions joining the team for the spring that should contribute right away."
The team has eight returnees, including
Sabrina Kierberg (Jr., Munich, Germany), the sixth-ranked singles player in the South Region and No. 19 in all of DII according to the ITA. There are three newcomers ready to make their spring Shark debuts: freshman
Francesca Sella (Fr., Carpenedolo, Italy), who earned a No. 17 preseason singles ranking in the region as one of only four freshmen listed; and junior transfers
Irina Constantinide (Galati, Romania) and
Petra Jurova (Bratislavia, Slovokia).
The match with St. Thomas Thursday, beginning at 3 p.m. from the NSU Tennis Center at Rolling Hills, hopes to be a continuation of recent work put in on the courts, according to Schram.
"The team is pumped up, and they all have great attitudes," he said. "They're ready to get started after three and a half weeks of great practice, and the timing couldn't be better."
Following the home opener, the team heads north to play Valdosta State and Flagler.
"St. Thomas is a good match to start out with, it should give us a good idea of what we need to work on before we head out to Georgia," said Schram. "Those will be two very tough matches back-to-back, but we're very excited."
The first weekend match will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday in Valdosta, Georgia, with the second at that same time the following day in St. Augustine, Florida. Valdosta State is ranked No. 15 in the ITA preseason national poll and features the No. 21-ranked singles player in the nation (and No. 8 in the region), Michelle Fischer. Flagler is five spots ahead of the Sharks at No. 30.
Following the three matches in four days, NSU will be back home at Rolling Hills, taking on York University out of Canada on Feb. 19.
