May 13, 2011
NCAA Men’s Tennis Tournament – Lexington, Ky.
First Round – Louisville 4, Cornell 0
Cornell head coach: Tony Bresky
On the match verses Louisville …
“Louisville is a great team. Rex runs a really good program and they have a lot of experience. They certainly outplayed us today; no doubt the better team won. I think we competed hard, but we got off to a very poor start in the doubles and we are capable of more than that. In singles, Louisville has been very strong, and I think we played well in some spots. A couple of the matches were really tight, I thought we were going to win on court 1. Overall, Louisville showed that they are a great team today.”
On the effect of the rain delay …
“I think it probably benefited our team. We weren’t playing very well up to that point. We had lost six of our sets; obviously to come back and win two out of the four and get in the second set breaker, that was huge to at least to keep the match going.”
On his first year success at Cornell …
“It was a great year. In my first year at Cornell, it was the first year Cornell has ever made the NCAA tournament, first time we have ever won the Ivy League, so there were a lot of good experiences and memories this year. Hopefully looking to the future, we have signed a great recruiting class, but unfortunately we are losing a great group of guys. We will look to build on this and continue to help out program grow and hopefully make a run in the NCAA tournament in the near future.”
Louisville Head coach: Rex Ecarma
On Louisville’s play against Cornell …
“I felt like we were in control especially in doubles and things were in hand. We then won all the first sets in singles then we got the rain. I am not saying that Louisville is afraid of playing indoor, but I knew that Cornell is a significantly better indoor team. They got a seventy-five minute break and a new game plan and they came out swinging. One of the key things was Robert Hall. If Robert Hall goes to a third set it’s a totally different match. It’s very hard to come back from a three-point deficit and we just hung in there. We were like a horse up 10 lengths and they came back but the race just ends”.
On how much he hoped to get the match in outside …
“I kept of delaying the referee and just kept trying to turn fifteen minutes into thirty. He said that he saw lighting and I said I didn’t. I really wanted to stay outdoors because you don’t want to disrupt a tennis player because they are emotionally volatile. The mind goes when you take away that advantage so I really wanted it to stay outdoors actually”.
On the prospect of playing Kentucky tomorrow …
“It’s exciting. I mean you have Eric (Quigley) from Louisville, you have the whole Eric Quigley and Austin Childs debate of who is the best player in the state. We haven’t played in six years and the whole Louisville against Kentucky thing. Then you kind of throw in the chance to get to the Sweet 16 and NCAA tournament, there is so many subplots around this match it is going to be fun”.
