PREVIEW: Pride Tennis Heads To Orlando For Spring Break
The Regis (Mass.) men's and women's tennis teams will get a reprieve from the cold weather and indoor training when they head south to Orlando, Fla. for a week of training and matches against top-notched opponents.
WESTON, Mass. – The Regis (Mass.) men's and women's tennis teams will get a reprieve from the cold weather and indoor training when they head south to Orlando, Fla. for a week of training and matches against top-notched opponents. The teams fly out of Boston in the early morning hours Friday, Mar. 3 and return to campus Saturday, Mar. 10.
Both teams will play matches against Kings College, Penn State-Berks and Moravian College. The Pride men will also face the University of Minnesota-St. Paul with the women taking on St. Vincent College. Training sessions and matches will take place at three sites throughout the week; Star Island Resort & Club, the USTA National Campus, Fort Gatlin Center and the Lake Cane Tennis Center
"To be a good program you need to take trips like these," said Pride coach John Ciarleglio on the value of spring break competitions. "When I got to Regis, taking out-of-region trips was high on my list of building both programs."
This will be the third straight March both Pride teams will visit Orlando for spring break after trips to South Carolina and Tampa the two years prior. The 100-court USTA National Campus in Orlando opened this January and will serve as the primary site for the Pride's matches. Competing this week will be teams from all NCAA divisions along with NAIA schools, making this the largest spring break week in terms of number of teams.
Ciarleglio also sees the trip as an invaluable recruiting tool. "From a recruiting standpoint, if I'm going to sell Regis tennis as a high-level program then we have to do things that demonstrate that and spring break trips are one of them."
With the cold winter weather, the Pride have been training mainly indoors and heading down south will allow both teams to get used to playing outdoors again and, make no mistake about it, coming away with wins is a priority. "There will be a few changes from the fall so we'll be experimenting with our lineup, but we want to win so I don't look at this as some sort of spring training. We scheduled tough matches but we have a shot at winning all five."
All matches at the USTA facility will offer live streaming for every court. Fans can visit www.playsight.com to register. Downloadable apps at PlaySight.com are available as well.
Stay up to date with Pride tennis all week long through the official Regis Athletics social media accounts on Twitter (@GoRegisPride), Facebook (@GoRegisPride), Instagram (@GoRegisPride) and YouTube (Regis College Pride). Daily recaps and up-to-date match schedules are posted on www.goregispride.com.
#RegisWTEN | #RegisMTEN