No. 2 men’s tennis sidesteps distraction, eyes national championship

By Steve Lansdale

AUSTIN, Texas — Coaches and athletes often are, to a degree, creatures of habit. Some are creative and like to think and do some things that are a little outside the proverbial box, but more often than not, they like to develop a routine and stick with it. Some will focus on getting the same amount of sleep, or eating the same meal the night before a game or match, getting into the weight room at the same time, or even something as trivial as lacing one shoe before the other. Coaches and athletes strive to find what works for them, and then clinging to that routine as if it holds their only opportunity for additional breaths of air.

That is precisely what Bruce Berque has done this season has been so extraordinary. Berque replaced Michael Center as UT’s men’s tennis head coach March 12; at the worse, the team has not missed a step … and the argument can be made that the Longhorns are playing their best tennis of the season.

That Berque is leading Texas to a successful season is no surprise; he is, after all, a proven veteran coach who has coached at several schools, including as head coach at the University of Michigan, and he has produced unquestioned results, including two NCAA singles champions and four NCAA champion doubles pairs. In addition, he took over a Texas team loaded with talented players — many of whom he helped recruit as a UT assistant coach.

Nevertheless, [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]a dramatic event has derailed more than one successful program before. One key injury or a player running into some kind of disciplinary issue can make a team jump the tracks of a strong season, and never get pointed back in the right direction. Changing a head coach during the season certainly qualifies as such a dramatic event.

When he took over as the interim head coach, Berque wasn’t exactly allowed to feel his way along: the day he stepped into the lead role, Texas beat Rice, 5-2. Two days after the transition, the Longhorns hosted Ohio State at the Texas Tennis Center and claimed a 4-1 victory over the Buckeyes — who, at the time, were the top-ranked team in the country.

“What I really liked about the match is everyone fought on every court, and we had fantastic crowd support,” Berque said after the match, “and the guys did a great job of supporting each other.”

Berque acknowledged that while the move from assistant coach to interim head coach was not exactly comfortable, the immediacy of the matches against the Owls and the Buckeyes effectively kicked him and the Longhorns into the deep end … at which point it became readily apparent that this team could swim.

“That first day was pretty unsettling,” Berque said, “but we played Rice that night, and after that match, the guys had a meeting to talk about everything. But there wasn’t a lot of time to discuss things. Once we played Ohio State — we had a massive crowd, a great environment, we played great — I think we sort of looked in the mirrors and realized this is a really special group, it’s a good team, the work we do is good. Since then, we really have gone about our business.

“Once we got past Ohio State, we were really locked in on our goals.”

First among the list of those goals is, of course, winning, and that is what the Longhorns have done this season. Texas won its first three matches with Berque at the helm before stumbling, 4-2, against then-No. 15 USC. After falling to the Trojans, the Longhorns won six more consecutive matches before getting tripped up by then-No. 8 Baylor. UT has won its first three matches in the NCAA Championship in dominant fashion, blitzing Tennessee Tech, 4-0, in the first round, taking down No. 37 South Florida, 4-1, in the second and then dismantling No. 24 Cal in a match so lopsided the Longhorns only lost a single set in the entire match.

“Our goals have never changed for this team,” junior Christian Sigsgaard said. “We knew going into the season that we could do very well this year.

“It would have been easy to say ‘screw this — we don’t want to play anymore’ (after the coaching change). But we didn’t have time to feel sorry for ourselves.

“We had to get ready to play Rice and Ohio State — we had to keep playing. Maybe we even played harder — I don’t know. People could say we were not favored to win, and I don’t know … maybe that gave us a little extra motivation.”

Berque and Sigsgaard agreed that the Longhorns benefited from the fact that Berque wasn’t coming into an unfamiliar situation. This season is his fifth at UT, and he recruited many of the players. His familiarity with the players — and, of course, their talent — has helped the transition go as smoothly as anyone could hope.

“We always had a lot of trust in him,” Sigsgaard said. “We know this is one of the best teams in (Texas) history, and we know he’s a great coach. So day to day, nothing really has changed. The transition was really smooth.”

Berque agreed, falling back on the team’s routine and the leadership of the older players to navigate the potentially choppy transition.

“It’s the mark of a great team, a team in the upper echelon of tennis,” Berque said. “You have to be consistent, you have to maintain practice, you have to have maturity, and this team has been outstanding in those areas. We have four seniors and four juniors, and a team of players with a real love of the sport, good character guys.

“Throughout everything, those guys have helped us retain our basic approach, bringing that consistency to practices and matches. There isn’t a team on our schedule we haven’t beaten. We lost to three teams — USC, Ohio State and Baylor — but we also beat each of them this year. We also haven’t had any bad losses. Those things happen, but the remarkable thing is that we haven’t had that this year.”

So in a year in which it would have been almost forgivable to stumble and regroup in anticipation of next year, the Longhorns have done exactly the opposite. They enter Thursday’s NCAA quarterfinal matchup against No. 9 TCU with a sparkling record of 26-3, and ranked No. 2 in the country. A team that could have collapsed in self-pity two months ago is two matches away from playing for a national championship.

“This is the best team we have had here in a long time,” Sigsgaard said. “(Berque) has kept us on track and given us a chance to win, and we have so far.

“We have performed well all year, but we all feel like we have a team that can win a national championship. That’s our ultimate goal, and I feel like that’s a realistic goal.”
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