Swimming Opens Dual Meet Schedule Saturday
FORT MYERS, Fla. – The Miami Hurricanes women’s swimming team opens its dual meet schedule Saturday with a trip to nearby FGCU and a showdown against the Eagles.
The meet is slated to begin at 11 a.m. from the FGCU Aquatics Complex.
“We’re really looking forward to tomorrow,” head coach Andy Kershaw said. “It’s our first dual meet of the year, which is the best part of college swimming. Aside from the championship season, dual meets bring out the true team atmosphere.”
Miami is coming off a strong showing at the SMU Classic, an invitational feature six of the nation’s premier teams hosted by SMU in Lewisville, Texas.
The Eagles won their dual meet opener over Incarnate Word by a final score of 175-120.
“Hopefully it’s going to be great meet, and I think it will be,” Kershaw said. “It’s an early season meet, and we’ve been training really hard. With that, there is a little bit of an unknown, but we’re training at a speed which leads us to believe we should be able to swim fast.”
Miami dropped last year’s meet against the Eagles on Senior Day, but Kershaw is encouraged by his team’s early season returns. After competing against FGCU amongst others at the All-Florida Invitational to open their season, the Hurricanes are eager to return to the pool after swimming against USC, Louisville, NC State and others last weekend in Texas.
“They have a great team. [Head coach] Neal Studd has a great program going, so I have a lot of respect for them and what they’re doing,” Kershaw said. “They swam great last weekend and had a good meet against Incarnate Word.”
Kershaw said he expects his team to be eager to compete against a talented Sunshine State foe.
“Both teams I think are kind of in the same mindset – it’s early season, and this is part of the process,” he said. “There’s no reason we can’t swim fast in that setting. It’s a good chance to do that and obviously it’s an instate program and so that adds a little bit to it.”
Despite dropping last year’s head-to-head meet at the Norman Whitten University Center pool, Kershaw is excited about the team’s chance for improvement in his first ever trip to Fort Myers.
“They’ve had our number here in the last few times we’ve squared off against them, and we want to change that,” he said. “We’re going to do our best. Our women are ready to go mindset wise. “
Despite a smaller team roster this season, Kershaw expects his group be fully prepared come Saturday at 11 a.m. More importantly, he knows the Hurricanes will need a team effort to earn the results they’re looking for.
“We’re going to need a great effort out of everyone,” Kershaw said. “We need everyone to step up. They know that – we’ve talked to them about it. A couple of our women are swimming in events that aren’t necessarily ‘their’ events, but they understand this is for the team and that’s what the team needs. “
