Andrew J. Ferraro
Staff Writer
Possibly the only thing standing between the Cougar tennis team and the 1998 Conference USA championship is a little rock and roll.
Rock and roll?
You know, The Rolling Stones, Rush, AC/DC, The Beatles. Rock and roll - the kind of music that always distracts the opponents during the matches.
"A lot of the time the baseball team will be playing a game or practicing during one of our matches, and the music from the stadium will drive our opponents crazy," said junior Mette Sigmundstad. "It's good to have the home court advantage, especially for a conference tournament.
"They complain about it every time, but what can they do about it? We're used to it and I think it helps us out."
Unfortunately for Sigmund-stad and the rest of the Cougars, the baseball team will not be playing in Cougar Field this weekend.
While the boys are in Birmingham, Ala. fighting for the top spot in the C-USA baseball standings, the tennis team will be trying to win its first-ever conference championship.
The seedings were released Monday afternoon and the Cougars, as expected by head coach Stina Mosvold, will be the No. 3 seed.
Defending champion and No. 29 nationally-ranked South Florida will be the No. 1 seed and Marquette will follow as No. 2. The Cougars and UAB round out the list of teams that will receive first round byes and will not play until Friday.
Today's first round action will begin at 10 a.m. as No. 6 Southern Miss and No. 11 Saint Louis will meet in the first match of the tourney. Also playing at 10 a.m. are No. 8 DePaul and No. 9 Memphis.
The other two first round matches will begin at 2 p.m. and will pit No. 5 Tulane against No. 12 UNC Charlotte, and No. 7 Louisville will play No. 10 Cincinnati.
The Cougars will play the winner of the USM/SLU match 9 a.m. Friday at the UH courts.
Although the Cougars have the home court advantage, one thing could work against them. Unfamiliarity.
While most teams in the conference have had a pretty good look at each other during the regular season, the Cougars have faced just one C-USA foe.
They lost to Marquette (a possible semifinal opponent) 3-6 on March 3 and had a planned match with South Florida canceled due to inclimate weather in Miami four days later.
"I do think we have the edge when it comes to being able to play at home, but one disadvantage is that we haven't seen any of these teams this year, except for Marquette," junior Sarah Bolle said. "And even then we weren't 100 percent. Anything could happen in this tournament, and you should come to expect that."
The Cougars did finish the regular season with a sub par 9-10 record, but in six of those matches UH was forced to play with just five players.
Year-long injuries have kept sophomore's Jane Brown and Galina Seliounina and freshman Joanna Cunliffe out of the lineup at various times.
The Cougars were 2-4 in matches played with just five netters.
Fortunately, the Cougars will have everybody back for the
tournament and Mosvold said that a championship is certainly not out of the reach.
"I think the team is very excited about being able to play the tournament on our own courts," Mosvold said.
"It's good to know that we are not going to have to worry about travel and that the players can sleep in their own beds in-between matches.
"We feel very strongly that we can win this thing."