Men’s tennis prepares for Nationals

By Chris Beck
Photo by Steve Choice

After an outstanding regular season, the Pima Community College men’s tennis team will cap that journey by making a trip to nationals.

The team secured its spot in the national tournament in the first day of the regional tournament, which was held April 19-20.

“We had a great day,” head coach Sharif Moustafa said after the first day of matches. “My No. 3 and 5 singles are in the finals and all three doubles teams are in the semifinals tomorrow.”

With this impressive outing, the team was able to lock down one of the three spots at nationals given to the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference.

The second day at regionals was not chock full of victories, but the coach was still confident in his team.

“We didn’t do as well as I wanted to,” Moustafa said. “We lost the matches we were in. My No. 3 almost beat the No. 3 from Scottsdale. He took him to three sets. My three doubles lost in three sets. Overall it was some very high quality tennis I saw today.”

Andrew Barnett

Fortunately, the losses on the second day did not affect Pima’s place at nationals, as the rankings will be decided closer to the tournament.

The national tournament will be held in Plano, Texas, May 10-14. There will be 36 teams from around the nation competing for the championship.

“The goal at the beginning of the season was to get to Plano,” Moustafa said. “We achieved it all as a team and I couldn’t be happier for the sophomores and the freshmen as well.”

In order to prepare, there will be no time for the Aztecs to celebrate their accomplishments.

“We start tomorrow,” Moustafa said. “We are going to get out there tomorrow and work at all we need to work at. No breaks.”

This attitude from the coach may provide a little insight as to why he was recently named the regional coach of the year in his first year at Pima.

While this is an impressive honor, Moustafa remains humble in an effort not to take away from the team’s achievement.

“When I came in here, we set a bunch of goals,” Moustafa said. “For me to see the kids go through and condition and deal with a first-year coach and still achieve all of our goals, I couldn’t be more content with that.”

In a season full of goals being successfully completed, the team most likely has a few more goals for the upcoming weeks. With nationals only a couple weeks away, the thought of national glory is no doubt in the players’ minds.

“This is on a national level so there are not going to be any easy matches,” Moustafa said. “There is not going to be an easy draw.”

With only one tournament to go, the team no doubt is looking for victory. These matches in Texas will be the sophomores’ last at Pima, so the team will be focused on the trophy. But coming home without one wouldn’t be disappointing either.

“Just to get out there, just to know we are top 36 in the country is a good feeling,” Moustafa said. “Now we would like to know we are even better than that.”