Odds are, you weren’t exercising at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday morning. You weren’t dressed, showered and ready to start the day. You weren’t even awake.

But the Syracuse tennis team had already started practice at that hour. Seven players were already scrimmaging each other in preparation for this weekend’s Brown Tournament in Providence, R.I.

The eight-team event is SU’s third tournament of the season and pits the Orangewomen against several tennis powers, including Harvard – one of the best teams on the East Coast. The tournament will also be important in determining which Syracuse players qualify for the ITA Tournament, an important regional competition later this month.

‘The Brown Tournament is probably our toughest tournament to date,’ Syracuse head coach Mac Gifford said. ‘It’s a test. It’s seeing how well we handle competition, seeing how well we come together as a team, seeing what kind of shape we’re in.’

Syracuse has turned in ambivalent performances in its first two outings. Doubles partners Daniela Kaluskova and Wei-Ming Leong defeated a Maryland duo to capture a championship at last weekend’s Maryland Invitational, but Syracuse failed to impress in singles.

‘Doubles was good, singles was not so good,’ sophomore Kristine Bech Holte said. ‘We all have had ups and downs.’

In an attempt to steady the ship, the Orangewomen focused more on singles during practices this week.

‘We came back from (Maryland) having played very good doubles,’ Gifford said. ‘But we don’t stop there. We look at the stuff we’re doing in doubles, and we try to build on our strengths and work on aspects of our game that might get exploited by other teams.’

Since the tennis season heats up in the spring, Syracuse expects to use this early competition at Brown as an extension of its practices.

‘Tournaments allow us to compete at the highest level,’ Gifford said, ‘and get practice that we probably wouldn’t get at practice during the week.’

‘We’re just working on stuff,’ senior Masha Kabanova said, ‘and when we go out and play we try to improve on everything.’

Though it’s early, Syracuse is still looking for a strong showing to propel it into the heart of the fall season.

‘The results are important in the tournament coming up,’ Gifford said. ‘My goal is to get as many players into the (ITA Tournament) as possible.’

Syracuse typically qualifies three or four players for the ITAs, held in Cambridge, Mass., starting Oct. 25. To get in, players must submit scores from this season’s tournaments. Only 128 players make the field.

As for the rest of the season, Gifford is optimistic that success at the Brown Tournament will help him craft a cohesive, winning team.

‘My long-term goal is that I want to use the word ‘team’ a lot,’ he said. ‘I want them to internalize all of those values that a team brings out in a player.

‘In terms of results, I would like to play the Ivy League schools strong. This is a very good bunch of players. Everyone on this team can do it. They can play.’

Published on October 3, 2002 at 12:00 pm