Last year, the men’s tennis team ended their season with Ben Kopecky '13 and Sam Miles '13, who made it into the NCAA Division III Doubles Championship. Coming off an overall record of 17-5 at the end of the 2013 season, the Tigers will look to improve without the pair.
“We’re just as good if not better than last year,” sophomore Patrick Farrell said. “We have a lot of experience on our team and we know we have what it takes to win conference and go to the NCAA tournament in the spring.”
Although it’s only the second week of September, Farrell’s confidence in the team’s potential speaks for itself.
This past weekend, the team opened Fall play at the DePauw Invitational, an individual tournament divided up into nine flights (six sets of singles and three sets of doubles).
For the most part, DePauw faced Division II teams like Ohio Dominican University, Grand Valley State University and the University of Indianapolis. The matchups proved to be the “toughest level of competition the tournament has seen in a long time,” according to Assistant Coach Andrew Gregory.
Although the Tigers didn’t win any of the nine flights, it was certainly a positive start to the season.
“It’s still very early in the season, so it was great to see that our guys were in great shape and played well against good competition,” said Farrell.
Senior Chris Bertolini was particularly impressed with how the team performed individually.
“The returning players showed improvements from last year, while the freshmen and transfer students had very promising results,” Bertolini said.
The newcomers to the team are who Head Coach Scott Riggle will pay the closest attention to early in the season.
“One of the goals for the fall is getting to know the new kids and having them understand what they need to do to get better between now and the spring,” Riggle said.
The freshmans' impact will play an important role in the Tigers’ season, as the team lost three talented seniors, Kopecky, Miles, and Joe Collins. However, Riggle isn’t too concerned about the holes the three have left.
“Every year you wonder how you’re going to fill that void, but every year someone steps up,” Riggle explained.
Riggle is also focusing on advancing as many players deep into the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Tournament in two weeks. The tournament will be played in Indianapolis at North Central High School.
“We want to play the best tennis we can and the results will follow,” senior Eric Bruynseels explained. “Our team has huge potential and this year is going to be one for the books.”
Besides a tough schedule, the team is preparing themselves for conference play through their in-season training regiments as well.
“We’ve adopted a conditioning schedule that a top Division One team uses,” explained Bertolini. “We’ve already noticed improvements in our physical stamina and we look forward to seeing how it spans out for us.”
Although conference play doesn’t start until April, the team has its eyes on the NCAA tournament. For the past two years, the Tigers have fallen just short, finishing second to conference-rival Kenyon College and missing the tournament each time.
“This season our goal as a program is to win the conference tournament… and get over the hump,” Gregory said. “This will give us an NCAA birth for the first time in years.”
Next up for the Tigers is Marian University this Wednesday at 5 p.m. before they wrap up Fall play at the USTA/ITA Central Regional Championships at the end of the month.