Just like in the NCAA basketball tournament, in the NESCAC men’s tennis tourney there can be only one team, one man standing above all the rest. At the end of the day, that man can look down upon his bested competitors and claim to be the best tennis player that has graced New England’s small liberal art colleges for that year.
For the Wesleyan men’s tennis team, no man climbed to those nauseating heights this year, but it was still a great ride to the base camp. The team finished with a respectable 9-9 record on the year, with an equally respectable 7-7 mark in the spring term. The combined failings in the tourney will be difficult to reconcile, but will not ultimately mar a season that had so many high points.
“I think that everyone is a little disappointed over the outcome of the tourney,” said co-captain Ari Levin ’04. “There were some external circumstances that we faced that didn’t help, like having to play Friday’s matches inside and having players drive up to the matches because they had to hand in work that morning.”
“We kind of had a rough tournament,” said Max Kates ’06. “One reason was that we lost a bunch of first round matches, where if we had won, we could have picked up some points for the team standings. But, because we lost, we had consolation matches, and we just don’t do consolation matches. Consolation matches are crap.”
The team scoring in the tournament, as Kates alluded to, works on a point system. Points are obviously awarded for victories, but also for success in consolation matches. In those matches, percentages of points can be earned. In the end, Wesleyan finished tenth out of 11 teams.
“I wasn’t happy with my personal performance,” Levin said. “The players who had been carrying the team the entire year didn’t play their best, either. It’s not the way I wanted the season to end.”
Although it was a difficult weekend on the court, Kates emphasized that just being there with the team’s elders made it a worthwhile experience.
“We had a lot of fun, even if it was rough tennis-wise,” Kates said. “Being around the captains, [Levin and Dan Yeoman ’04], for their last competition was good. I’m really going to miss Ari’s beautiful serve.”
Levin agreed the enjoyment from the season overshadowed the letdown of the final tourney.
“I thought we had a very successful season considering the changes we faced,” Levin said. “We had a new coach come in for this semester and had to replace our number one and number two players from last year. While it would have been nice to have a few more wins, all the players got along, which is important.”
Kates attributed the team’s performance this season to solid leadership and team camaraderie.
“Both off and on the court the players stayed together,” Kates said. “Also, we had two great captains. Dan is the most extroverted I know by far. In Daytona, he would walk up to any girl and just start talking to her. He was completely focused on the team. And Ari, he was a very responsible and trusting captain. He doesn’t stress out about anything even the hundreds of dollars he probably has lost buying things that he hasn’t gotten paid back for.”
Where is the Wesleyan men’s tennis team heading in the future? Both Kates and Levin agreed that wherever it is, it is bright and shiny.
“The team is going to have a lot of depth next year,” Levin said. “With five seniors returning, the freshmen returning with a year of experience under their belt and the return of Matt Cron [’05] from Nepal, I think that this team can have a successful year.”
Most likely stepping into the role of number one singles player, Kates is excited about not only the team’s fall prospects, but also Cron’s imminent arrival.
“Matt will be back and he’ll step right into the top six players,” Kates said. “Hopefully in Nepal he has picked up some Tibetan meditation skills that will help the team focus next year.”