After a disappointing loss to NESCAC rival Hamilton College, the men’s tennis team needed to string together some impressive performances—if not to win the league, then at least to save face. Two winnable matches were played in Middletown this past weekend, but unfortunately, the Cardinals only won one of them. On Thursday the men slipped past the Connecticut College Camels (5-4) before falling in another nail-biter to the Tufts University Jumbos (4-5).
Both matches were incredibly close, and the strong sophomore core of Cardinals continued to impress. Against Conn, it was the Cardinals’ strong singles play that carried them through. Wins at the number one, five, and six spots by Jeff Legunn ’13 (6-2, 6-2), Donald Kleckner ’13 (6-2, 6-0) and Michael Thaddeus Glen ’13 (6-2, 6-4), along with John Parsons ’14 (6-2, 6-3) at number four, helped carry the Cards over the Camels. The win came despite lackluster doubles play that only evoked a single victory at the number three doubles spot by Parsons and Glen in a hair-raising 9-7 win.
The Tufts affair concluded differently, with the Cardinals on the all too familiar losing side of a NESCAC contest. This time the doubles performances looked as though they could put the Cardinals over the hump, with two big wins at the number two and number three doubles spots by the four singles winners from the Conn College match. Legunn and Kleckner paired up to win convincingly (8-4), while Parsons and Glen also played strong and recorded what they hoped would be a pivotal 8-5 win. Unfortunately, the only singles victories would be recorded by Legunn (6-0, 6-2) and Kleckner (3-6, 7-5, 6-4). Four wins are not enough to win a nine-match contest, and thus the Cardinals lost to Tufts in an important late-season tussle.
Clearly things are looking up for the Cardinals, who have been a part of three 5-4 decisions in their past three NESCAC matches. The bad news is that they have been on the losing side of the ball in two of those. While the Cardinals can take solace in the fact that are clearly elevating their game to a higher level, they know that there is room for improvement.
“Yeah, we have played better, but that’s not enough,” Glen said. “We know we should have won against Hamilton and Tufts, and we really have to start playing better in close game situations.”
Glen’s sentiments are echoed by the rest of the team, who hope to bring their goals to fruition in the last match of the year against Coast Guard on Wednesday.