Coming off a dominating 9-0 victory over Marian College last week, the men's tennis team was looking for improvement in every aspect of individuals' games.
The main strength of the team thus far has been its doubles play. But the team has improved singles play since its Fall Invitational this weekend.
"There are still some areas to improve in the singles," said assistant coach Andrew Gregory. "But with doubles, they were impressive."
Still, Gregory said the team played better matches in doubles and singles in comparison to Marian.
"I think it was just inconsistency and lack of match play," Gregory said of the high and low points of the singles matches. "It's early in the fall season so many of them are hoping to build on that and keep continually improving that match play so we can have more confidence."
The team found itself facing tough competition on the court in singles matches Saturday.
"I started off by playing a couple of hard matches on Sunday, and I think everyone was playing hard matches that day," said junior David Moss. "The main thing for me on Sunday was that our team was more physically fit than a lot more other teams."
Gregory agreed and said the team didn't have any bad singles matches on Sunday.
"I think a lot of it is these guys are running a lot and getting their conditioning in," he said. "They are hitting a lot of balls, so they're getting their rhythm back and footwork which works with timing. A lot of these guys are improving each week."
In singles, Gregory said the one area that still needs improvement is placement on the second serve.
"We have to improve on serve placement and picking up on opponents' weaknesses on their return," he said. "I saw too many double faults. Add more spin to those second serves and be consistent with those."
While the team is strong when its first serve can get in, Moss said the second serve can still dictate play if it is placed in the right area of the court and the opponent has to get out of position to return it.
"Our second serves are the place where we let down a little bit," Moss said. "On the second serve you're really trying to still manage to move someone off the court even though it may not be as fast of a serve but still position it whether they can set up a point."
After the first two tennis matches of the season, the Tigers hope to continue developing their talent and working on their weaknesses.
"You can practice but it takes time to not only get into physical form but mentally getting prepared for a match," Moss said. "I think this weekend we made a big step getting back towards getting mentally ready for big matches."
The team will travel to Peoria, Ill. next weekend for the Bradley Invitational.