Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 12, 1993 TAG: 9304120048
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
HOKIES SEEK METRO NET TITLE
Virginia Tech's men's tennis team juiced itself with an upset of nationally ranked Texas A&M, then went semi-dry in a four-match tournament at California-Irvine.Now Tech is thirsty again, top seed Marcus Kramer says, and wants refreshment at the Metro Conference Tournament this weekend at Tech.
"We have four guys in the top six who won't be back," Kramer said. "There's no other time. We just have to do it."
Kramer, a senior from Jacksonville, Fla., will lead Tech (13-4) into the tournament. Hokies coach Larsen Bowker at times has shuffled his top three seeds - Kramer, Ongjen Pavlovic and Dinko Gudelj - but Kramer said Bowker told him he's No. 1 for the rest of the season.
Kramer, ranked as high as 25th in the country this year by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, can handle it. Apparently, so can the trio of top players who have knocked heads in practice.
"We've kind of gotten it figured out that it's not really who wins in practice [that should be No. 1]," Kramer said. "Ongjen can pretty much beat us in practice; he knows how to beat us. It's mostly who's going to win for us [in matches]."
Kramer is 25-9, his most singles wins in four years at Tech, and currently is ranked 44th nationally as of April 6, 13 spots ahead of Pavlovic. Under his belt this year is a victory over Top 10 player Yaser Zaatini of East Tennessee State.
Victories such as that one require an absence of friction in Kramer's mental gears - something he said bothered him in California, where he went 2-2. He led 12th-ranked Frank Sohaffner of then-No. 7 Alabama-Birmingham 3-1 but lost the next 11 games and the match. He lost again the next day, 6-3, 6-2. "I didn't have enough fight," he said.
He followed that with two singles victories and claims his mind is right now. Part of the problem, he said, was playing outdoors. Weather had kept Tech mostly inside, and the adjustment was rough.
"It helped us mentally. There were a lot of tough matches out there," Kramer said. "As much as we can [now], we'll go outside."
Under cover or not, Kramer admits he won't beat too many people on talent alone. So, though he'd prefer to hit on the baseline, he's developed a chameleon-like game.
"A lot of times, I outsmart people and play the game they don't want to play," he said. "I can adjust my game to win. There are some guys I'll beat playing the game I want to play, but half the matches you adjust it."
Kramer and his mates have helped Tech's program apparently turn a corner from relative anonymity to gaining regional recognition. Yet Kramer doesn't have a profound sense of leading the program to a new level.
"Since I've been here, we've always been good," he said. "It's just something natural, it's going to happen. The school's done a lot for me. I just feel, the little bit I can do . . . "