Nerves should be high as Florida kicks off its fall season today at the Gator Invitational at the Ring Tennis Complex.
But truthfully, they won't be.
To the Gators, this weekend's slate of matchups against South Florida, Central Florida and Florida Atlantic may as well be just another three days of practice.
"It doesn't count in the teams' wins and losses," junior Bob van Overbeek said. "Although the three teams are all good enough on a given day to beat anyone, we try to look at it as practice, and I'm sure they are too, because it's the first event of the year."
It also doesn't hurt that nearly the entire team has returned to compete for UF this year. Six of the eight players on last year's top-10 team are back on the Gators' courts this fall, with four of them taking spots in the ITA preseason top-125 rankings.
Senior Nassim Slilam tops those rankings for Florida at No. 37 with van Overbeek not far behind in the 58th spot, Wake Forest transfer Frank Carleton at No. 69 and junior Billy Federhofer at No. 119.
All four rankings will matter as the team attempts to qualify for competitions like the ITA All-American in October, but head coach Andy Jackson is most concerned with seeing his returning talent start a fresh season.
"We need to get matches," Jackson said. "We could go undefeated and have a very poor tournament in my opinion, or we could go 50 percent and be OK. That's what the fall is about, for me to give the feedback to the players on how they're doing."
That feedback is key to improving particular elements of the game that each player has worked on in practice and during the summer. For van Overbeek, his serve and return will be his biggest focus, while Slilam will be testing out his improved upper-body strength in match situations.
With Jackson comparing USF to a mid-level Southeastern Conference team, and UCF and FAU being "OK," this weekend will be a solid first test for the team's skill set as a whole.
"It won't be the greatest competition in the world, but it will be plenty good enough for us," Jackson said. "We're just trying to get going, get matches and get started going for the fall."
