Oct. 1, 2009

ARLINGTON, Texas - After a long weekend of matches, both squads are concentrating on the All American tournament starting Saturday for the men and Tuesday for the women. Last weekend the men's team played in the Baylor Invitational and the women competed in the Rice Classic. Both teams were competitive in all of their matches and came away with areas that could be improved upon.

"Every time we go to a tournament we play as hard as we can, the fact of just getting match time in is huge, and it will pay off soon," said coach Benitez. "We just need to practice a few more weeks to work on a few details of our game."

Although neither squad has played conference matches against other Southland Conference opponents, coach Diego Benitez knows his teams can compete with any in the nation.

"We have had many wins over Big 12 schools, Conference USA, and Sun Belt," said coach Benitez. "We can play toe to toe every single time out there with any opponent."

The All American tournament should offer the Mavericks the hardest competition thus far. Keeping to the basic fundamentals and focusing on every point will be key for success. The more matches that the players can get under their belt before conference play the better.

"We just need to play a lot of matches and make sure we get into this routine of continuously being competitive," said coach Benitez. "We just need to compete a lot and face different opponents. The talent is there and the hard work is being implanted from day one."

The men's tournament will be held in Tulsa, Oklahoma and the women's tournament will be in Los Angeles, California.