Men's Tennis Duo Impresses At Rice Fall Invitational

Tuesday, September 15, 2009 07:55 PM

HOUSTON – Men’s tennis team members Kudakwashe “Kuda” Nyatoti and Jose Garcia represented Prairie View A&M in the prestigious Rice Tennis University Fall Invitational this past weekend and walked away with several victories under their belts.

Prairie View was one of five schools to participate in last weekend’s invitational.  Also participating in the invitational were players from nationally ranked programs such as Rice, Tulane, LSU and SMU. 

In doubles action, Nyatoti and Garcia finished the weekend with a 1-2 mark that included an 8-5 victory over SMU on Sunday afternoon.  During singles play, the duo both posted a 1-2 mark with wins over SMU.  Garcia defeated SMU’s Kyle Van Burkiek 4-6, 6-3, 1-0 (10-5) on Sunday while Nyatoti also defeated Burkiek 6-4, 6-2 on Saturday.

“It was a great experience for me this past weekend to play in the Rice Invitational,” said Garcia.  “It’ll definitely prepare me for the upcoming HBCU National Tennis Championship in Atlanta.”

“We played and competed well over the weekend,” said Nyatoti.  “I received the opportunity work on some things that’ll help prepare me for the upcoming season.”

Prairie View A&M head coach John Cochran was pleased with the way his players progressed over the weekend.

“On Friday, both players started out slow as they didn’t move well but that was expected considering it was their first match,” he said.  “We stepped it up on Saturday and on Sunday; everything came together as they played the way I expected.  Overall, they played at 50 percent of where I wanted them to be on Friday, 75 percent on Saturday and 85 to 90 percent on Sunday.” 

Both the men’s and women’s teams will compete in the annual HBCU National Championships in Atlanta, Ga. on Sept. 24-27.