Bobby Bayliss Quotations

When you step back from the moment of the loss and the pain and agony that goes with that and look back at what we achieved over the break, I think we have a lot to be proud of.

I think it's already affecting his play. He's hitting a bigger ball, he's taking the ball earlier, he's attacking more. We worked out individually today for about an hour, he and I, and I see a difference in the balls he's hitting.

I think the main focus is to get tomorrow's match over. To win the match tomorrow and not be extended physically, and be ready to go for Saturday - we'll expect tougher matches on Saturday.

I think the goal is to win it this week. We only can control a little bit of our destiny with regards to the NCAA tournament - I think that's the bigger goal.

I think the confidence winning an event like that, particularly a national event, is going to vault him into another level of capabilities of the way he'll feel about himself on the court. He's going to play with more confidence and I don't think he's going to be afraid of anything.

I think the schedule has toughened us and I've seen team go both ways on that. You can take hits and after a while your confidence erodes and you're not as good, but if you have the resolve to back it up you will really benefit from the level of competition you're seeing, and I think that's what we've done.

Our top 3 teams all made it into the round of 32 but all of them lost in that round, and a couple of them had really close matches.

We had good matches, got exposed to a lot of good tennis, got to practice with some guys from other teams as well.

We've kind of done a full court press as far as our doubles lately, evaluating where we are, and we're not worried as much about the combinations. It's about everyone developing better skills.

We have worked pretty hard on our doubles. We went about three hours yesterday and today, we probably went just over two.

We know them. We anticipate another close match, a competitive match, which it usually is in this series.

Tuesday we actually focused really on just fundamentals off the ground - really driving the ball with our legs, hitting a lot of cross courts, getting back into a groove. When you compete that much, little cracks and fissures start to show up in your game ... you need that solid time to get the fundamentals back.

We expected a tough match. It was a tough match. We were able to win the close matches and that was the difference.

It was very hard fought - we did have opportunities we didn't capitalize on.

They've been around the block. They have a couple of Swedish players that have big serves and really big forehands. We just got a little bit overpowered last year so we're ready for that. We'll expect a very close match.

It was a really good experience for us. The La Hoya Beach and Tennis Club is a terrific place to host an event - it's right on the Pacific Ocean. The courts are in great shape. The competition was great. It was everything we wanted it to be.

It shows you the quality of that win.

It's been a balance of both. That's the biggest thing, just getting used to the speed of the courts and heat and humidity and trying to fine tune the things we need to do a little better.

Then we played Fresno State and had a close 4-2 with them. Stephen Bass deserves a great deal of credit for that match.

That's a pretty big national event and we felt fortunate to get to the finals. We'd hoped to win it but I think we gave a pretty good accounting for ourselves and we're ready to go to Texas next weekend.

In the era of big-money sports, I think a lot of our problems have gotten swept under the rug, and maybe they haven't meant to be. There is a tremendous sense of frustration among the rank and file.

Hopefully, we'll get to hit tomorrow evening in Austin when we get in and a little bit Saturday morning before the match, so it won't be a difficult adjustment outdoors. At least, I hope it won't.