The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Dizdar diary: May 11
05.11.2006 | Women's Tennis
University of Texas junior Petra Dizdar (Split, Croatia) returns with the NCAA Tournament edition of her diary. After a busy and productive spring semester, Petra and the 18th-ranked Longhorns head to Fort Worth this weekend for the NCAA regional championships, where they will meet 44th-ranked Arkansas in Friday's opening round.
Hello, dear Longhorn fans!
I know it has been a while since my last entry, but I have a pretty good excuse. I am finishing my junior year at UT, and at this time of the year, things get really hectic. The season starts to come to an end, as well as the school semester. Those two things alone - tennis and school - take up pretty much all of my time.
However, THE MOST IMPORTANT part of our entire year is here, so I would like to take a few minutes and write about the team's thoughts heading into the NCAA Championships.
The NCAA selection committee sent us to Fort Worth, home of the TCU Horned Frogs, for our first two regional rounds. We open tournament play tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. when we face Arkansas. The team is really pumped to get out on the courts tomorrow, especially since we have had a little break since our last match at Baylor.
We know that this is our last tournament of the year, and it is also the last time we will all play together as a team. We have been through a lot together, and we have shared the smiles and the tears for the past few years. The NCAA Championships will serve as a "goodbye to college" for our three seniors (Kelly Baritot, Mia Marovic and Kendra Strohm), so you can imagine how much of our emotion and dedication will go into tomorrow's match. The NCAA tournament carries a lot of pressure because we know that we won't get a second chance. You either win and stay in, or you lose and you are out.
We have had an interesting year to say the least, with lots of ups and downs. But, we always tried to use our experiences to our advantage. We know that our losses were nothing more than a valuable lesson we had to learn. Now, at the end of the year, we know that whatever happened prior to this weekend won't have much of an effect on tomorrow's match. It is all on us to come out with lots of heart and resilience and to fight for every point.
Many consider us the "underdogs" this weekend, but we won't complain. With that title, we know our opponents consider us to be a threat. Everyone knows we are Texas and that we are the strongest at the end. We don't go down without a fight!
We are ready to come out tomorrow and put everything that we have out there. No regrets...no doubts...no calculations. Everything comes down to this moment, and this is what we have been working for since September.
As you can tell, I am "super-excited" about Friday's match, and I will be proud to go out there and compete with my teammates.
Wish us luck, and I will be back with more tomorrow!
TEXAS FIGHT!
