A National 2010 Copper Division Title Win at the recent United States Tennis Association (USTA) Tennis on Campus National Tournament in Surprise, AZ, was no surprise for Lone Star College-CyFair’s Fighting Ducks.
“You may think of LSC-Cy Fair as just another community college in Texas, but LSC-Cy Fair offers its students the chance to participate in many of the same activities offered at four-year colleges and universities,” said Andra Yanchenko, tennis player. “During the week of April 14-18 in Surprise, AZ, the LSC-Cy Fair Tennis Team showed four-year colleges and universities they can play with the big names.”
Last year the opportunity for LSC-CyFair to play in the nationals (the only community college to participate) came with USTA’s Club of the Year in Texas title the Fighting Ducks earned, said Coach Tim Sebesta. This year, the team was in tier #1 based on their participation in their sectional event and two prior matches. This qualified them for an at-large bid, which they received through the national lottery system.
Under the leadership of Coach Sebesta, Yanchenko and her other team members, Samuel Holmes, Thanh Nguyen, Chandra Kurati, Daniella Silkwood, Jasmine Nguyen and Betsy Rahman finished this year’s national tournament with a 4-3 record as they competed against teams from across the United States and Puerto Rico.
“What is more impressive,” Yanchenko said, “is in spite of losses to Auburn University, Marquette University and Stanford University, the Fighting Ducks fought their way back beating Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Puerto Rico, University of Delaware and Iowa State University to win the National 2010 Copper Division Title.”
LSC-CyFair teammate Holmes, a member of the LSC-Cy Fair 2009 Nationals Team, said tennis is fun and he was proud to represent LSC-CyFair at this tournament for the second year in a row.
“Individually, I played two singles matches and won one … In men’s doubles, we won six and lost only one match … In mixed doubles, we won all the matches that I played in,” said Holmes, who is graduating this May with an AAS in Logistics Management. “Overall, it was a wonderful event. I met a lot of interesting people and played some good tennis.”
This LSC-CyFair team’s presence was felt on as well as off the court, said Yanchenko. Not only, did former tennis pro Katrina Adams recognize the team’s success at the awards banquet, but www.Indietennis.com, an internet tennis channel, interviewed Yanchenko as well as Holmes. Adding to this year’s excitement was the fact that Holmes also appeared on the front cover of the USTA National Campus Championship Magazine.
For information on USTA, go online to www.tennisoncampus.com. For information on the LSC-CyFair Tennis Team, contact Sebesta at 281.290.3918.