UCC Tennis Club hit up a storm last weekend at the annual Irish Tennis Intervarsity competition. Led by club captains Duncan Cronin and Gillian O’Riordan the squad of nearly thirty players set off for Westwood Tennis Club in Leopardstown, Dublin on Wednesday morning.
UCC entered five teams overall, a credit to Coach Paul Fitzgerald, who encouraged and motivated each player since pre-season training began in late September. Three men’s teams and two women’s teams were set to go and ready to challenge colleges from all over Ireland.
The competition started bright and early on Thursday morning with UCC’s second ladies team first to play. The girls came up against their counterparts from UCD. They had two great singles wins from Shannon Ramzan and Captain Gillian O’Riordan. Gillian also won her doubles with partner and twin sister Louise O’Riordan who gives a new meaning to the term ‘double trouble’! Unfortunately the team overall lost out to UCD and so our girls went into the Plate competition where the girls were a smash hit and won it for the second year in a row. Congratulations ladies!
Up next to hit the courts in the Bowl Competition was UCC’s men’s third team led by their team Captain Robert Evans. Rob had his team pumped up and ready to go as they faced this year’s top seeds and last year’s hosts Queens University Belfast. Unfortunately the boys lost out to Queens; however UCC saw a fantastic win from Brian Kelleher in his singles match. The boys went into the back draw and made it all the way to the final to snatch another win for UCC. We saw some top class tennis from our boys and are very proud of their achievement.
The men’s first team were entered in to the main draw where they faced UCD (2) in the first round on Thursday afternoon. Our boys got the job done with wins all around in the singles and so, cruised into the next round where a tough match against DCU was to be played out. Unfortunately the boys lost out to DCU who went on to win the competition outright. This was not for lack of trying though, with an excellent win in singles from Marco Tardieux, a ‘years grace’ player who returned from France to play with UCC one last time. Team captain Duncan Cronin was pleased with his team’s performance and delighted Marco, a huge asset to the team, was able to return to the team.
UCC’s men’s second team were victorious in their first round of the Bowl against UCD (3) led by Captain Conor Dooley. Conor Cashman, a new talented player did the deed in his singles to see the team progress in the competition. The boys stepped on to court on finals day ready to give it their all. Unfortunately they came up against a strong CIT team in the final and were runners up in the Bowl. The team saw a euphoric win for first year Stephen Quirke in his singles and a great effort was put in by the whole team. Well done boys!
The ladies first team coasted to victory in their first round match against Queens University Belfast. A great win in singles from team Captain Alice Twomey spurred her team on to gain a place in the semi-finals against reigning champions TCD. A tough semi-final faced the girls who unfortunately lost out to Trinity, who went on to win the overall competition.
It was a fantastic four days for all involved in the event. There was some top class tennis from all sides and UCC are extremely proud of the effort put in by all of our players. It is clear that all the players’ hard work and dedication paid off with two teams getting to semi-finals and three teams getting to a final.
Congratulations to all involved, both players and coaches. UCC Tennis is already looking ahead to the year to come and hope to have many more successes in the future.
Many thanks to Gillian O Riordan and Tara Higgins for putting this article together.
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