The Wesleyan men’s tennis team finished off its fall season with authority last Thursday, cruising to a shutout victory over Salve Regina, 9-0. The win is the Cardinals’ third in a row and their fourth at home on the Wood Memorial Courts, where Wesleyan went undefeated. This last win against Salve Regina also capped off an undefeated fall in non-conference play for the Cardinals, whose lone loss at Williams is the only blemish on a 5-1 fall record.

The Cardinals entered this fall in a transitional period, with seven freshmen recruits joining the squad in September. With tri-captain Jeff Legunn ’13 out for the final match of the fall with a foot injury, Wesleyan men’s tennis could only go as far as those newcomers could take its, and the frosh responded valiantly. Donovan Suh ’15 stepped up to fill Legunn’s usual singles seeding at the #1 slot and turned in a dominant 6-1, 6-1 win, while Ben Hudson ’15, Stephen Monk ’15, and Charlie Seifer ’15 also contributed victories as the #2, #3, and #5 seeds, respectively.

Monk got through his match with relative ease, shutting out his opponent 6-0, 6-0. fourth seed Alex Hirsch ’13 and sixth seed tri-captain Donald Kleckner ’13 also shut out their opponents, rounding out a near-flawless day in singles play. The sole struggle for the Cardinal men was in the #1 seed doubles match, in which the pairing of Monk and Hudson grinded out a 9-7 win. The back end of the doubles lineup took care of business without much issue, as the #2 pairing of Jonathan Coombs ’15 and Alexander Rachlin ’15 and the #3 pairing of tri-captain Robert Troyer ’12 and Michael Glen ’13 each won in 8-0 shutouts.

As coach Ken Alrutz tinkered with the rosters throughout the fall in preparation for NESCAC play in the spring, he found a formula that has led to success in the interim as well. With Legunn ensconced as the #1 seed throughout the fall, the Cardinal men excelled in singles play to the tune of a 26-10 record. The doubles slate was the subject of even more changes throughout the fall, with eight different pairings filling the three seeds for each match, but also responded with a 14-4 record, indicating that the experimentation seems to be working.

However, this is not to say that Wesleyan men’s tennis has nothing to improve on as its enters winter training. The Cardinal men struggled to a 2-4 record at the #2 seed in singles play this fall, while stability in the doubles lineups will prove helpful when facing the weekly rigor of NESCAC opponents. But the team has a long winter to work out the answers to these problems. If the Cardinal men can build on their progress come March, Wesleyan will be poised for success in NESCAC play.