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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 29, 1983)
Page 4B/The Batlalion/Monday, August 29,1983 i i i i i New recruits have Kent eyeing national ranking Pile by Rose Delano Battalion Reporter Tennis coach David Kent is hoping five new recruits will give Texas A&M a chance at a top 20 finish in 1983-84. “We’ll have a young team next year that will be very talented,” he said. “We feel we have five top-of-the-line re cruits. These freshmen are what we have needed in the past. They’re proven tennis players and they have had the needed experience to enable us to com pete well in the Southwest Con ference this year. They’re a step above what we’ve been getting in and I’m excited about that. It’s the best recruiting year we’ve had for men’s tennis.” Kent said it would take time for his recruits to get used to the tough competition in the SWC, which usually has five teams in the nation’s top 20. Kent said that Marcel Vos, a freshman from Amsterdam, will bring international experience to the young team. “Vos has had a lot of interna tional wins and even though he is only 17 he’ll be bringing a lot of experience to our program,” Kent said. “He has played at Wimbledon and was the nation al junior champion of the Netherlands. We are excited to have him. He’s one of the better players in that area and I think he’ll help us tremendously.” Grant Connell, from Van couver, is another international player who should provide help. “He’s a big strong kid,” says Kent. “He’s left-handed. We’ve needed a left-hander very badly. He’s probably ranked No. 2 in Canada this year in juniors and he is really going to come forth and be an outstanding tennis /player.” Connell has all the attributes a good tennis player needs, Kent said. “He’s strong, fast, quick, dedi cated and he’s a good student. I think of all the recruits he is probably going to be the dark horse in that he wasn’t that high ly recruited. We are really look ing forward to big things from him.” Kent considers freshman re cruit Dean Goldfine, from Hol lywood, Fla., his diamond in the rough. “He’s improving every day,’’ he said. “He’s had some really big wins this summer. I’ve never seen him play, but going from the results and everything, he’s going to be one of the better players on our team. He has the knack to win and he’s so strong. If he can get a player in the third set he usually wins.” Another Florida recruit, Joey Perry, from Merrit Island is what Kent calls a “tenacious fighter". Kent also recruited state 5A singles champion Mark Smith from Austin. “Mark has really come on to his own this summer,” Kent said. “He won the state 5A singles championship, beating the de fending champion for the past two years, which is quite a feat and then won the sectional championship.” Smith, Goldfine and Perry are in the final 32 at the national junior championships in Kala mazoo, Mich., this summer. One more new addition to the team is transfer student Rafael Delgado from North Texas State University. Kent said four returning veterans will provide the team with the experience needed to assure the team a top 20 spot. Russ Simmons, a sophomore from Spring, has done well in doubles this summer and will bring more experience to the team. Arnold Kettenacker, a senior from Vancouver who helped re cruit Connell, has been doing well on the Canadian circuit this summer, Kent said. Kent hopes Greg Hill, a senior from Henderson, Ky., will be the the No. 1 singles play er on the team. “Greg should be the top play er on the team if all things go according to form,” he said. “He has been hampered all summer with a pulled muscle and hasn’t really played much this summer, so the verdict is still out on how well he’ll do this year. He missed all summer, but he’s a great athlete and a great tennis player.” Hie Aggies lost one player who might have had an out standing year. Kimmo Alkio, who left for military service in his native country of Finland, was A&M’s most consistent play er last season. He will be back in a year and a half, Kent said. Next season looks good for both the men’s and women’s ten nis teams, Kent said. “We have a good tough fall and spring schedule to give them a bit of experience which they’re going to need,” he said. “You just can’t come into this conference, the best tennis con ference in the United States, and burn it up right away like Super man. It’s going to take them a while, but they’ve really done well this summer.” The women’s team has four new recruits: Laura Liong from the Republic of Singapore, Gaylyn Gensler from Houston, Shelly Stockman from Seattle and Nandini Randaragan from India. “Liong is an outstanding play er,” he said. “She’s not very tall, but she’s fast. She spent a year and a half at Nick Bolotani’s Tennis Academy in Florida. So that’s really toughened her up. They don’t play fun and games down there, they really work out hard. It’s like a tennis prison, but you come out of there tough.” See TENNIS pageS AUDIO 10% to50% $AVIN$ ON everythustg: 707 TEXAS AVE. 696-5719 photo courtesy Texas A&M Sports NewsOfa Marcel Vos, A&M’s new tennis recruit from Holland, is expected to lead Aggie men’s team in ’83. Vos is a righthanded freshman. 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