In Play(er) of the Week, we seek to highlight Wesleyan athletes or exceptional plays. Over the weekend of Oct. 15-16, Wesleyan hosted the Wesleyan Invitational, where two freshmen took the doubles title. The Argus sat down with Tai MacDonald ’26 and JT Bilski ’26 to hear about their experience at the Invitational, the progression of their fall season, and their Summies orders. 

The Argus: Could you introduce yourself a little bit?

Tai MacDonald: I’m Tai MacDonald, I’m a freshman from San Diego. I’m planning on going pre-med and majoring in either psych or econ. Off-campus, I’ve been checking out the spots to eat between trainings.

A: Have you found a spot that you really enjoy so far?

TM: Prince House is good for poke.

A: What about you, JT?

JT Bilski: Yeah, I like Pokemoto a bit better.

A: And do you mind introducing yourself as well?

JB: I’m JT Bilski, I’m a freshman from New York City. My intended major is probably either government or history. I feel like the team hangs out a lot. We’re all definitely very close, so we all hang out on the weekends when we’re not playing tournaments. [There are] a lot of good spots. I like Summies because it’s always nice after a long day of work. Sometimes you gotta stay up late. You can go over at 12:30, you can get something to eat, which is very nice.

A: What’s your late night order?

JB: Breakfast special, always. Chocolate chip pancakes, bacon, tater tots, scrambled eggs, ketchup on all of that. And syrup. 

TM: For me, I either go for the breakfast burrito or the breakfast special.

A: Good choices. Congratulations on winning doubles for the Invitational. What do you feel allowed you to be so successful at this tournament? 

JB: What allows you to be successful is great team dynamics. We’ve all been showing great energy, going in with a lot of confidence, especially having a new freshmen class. We have a very young team. We’re really energetic and want to go out there and do our best. So I think that’s been a big part of it. And obviously the coaches around us have been supporting us so well. So I think that whole team feeling of being together and on the same page has helped us a lot.

A: How do you feel like you’ve approached playing as a first year? 

TM: I think the upperclassmen have done a really good job integrating us into the team and making us feel like we belong. We’re coming in as a very motivated group, and we want to build off of the success that the men’s team has had in the past. We want to take the next step and be able to compete at the national level. 

A: How have practices contributed to your overall success?

JB: I think the energy and the way we cheer is the same we’d be in a match, and how that’s emphasized in the practices is a big part of what our culture is and what separates us from other schools, and what I think has contributed to our success. We put a lot of attention to the mental side of things, for sure. We do a lot of meditation for our practices, which definitely puts us in a great mindset. So I think all of these things combined is giving us a defining culture and really showing how we’re different from everyone else.

TM: I would just add that we’re a super competitive group, and we compete a lot in practice. [We’re] always going at it and playing the same way we play in a tournament. But at the end of the day, after it’s all done, we’re still the same team. There’s no hard feelings or anything like that. So I think everybody’s ability to compete their hardest in practice and then play together as one unit is something that’s very special.

A: How do you feel like you approach the mentality of competing as an individual as opposed to as a team? 

JB: I think it’s a lot different from the juniors, [where] it was very individual, we would only win for ourselves, only compete and work for ourselves. [Being a part of a team] is a completely new feeling, you know, relying on other people for success as well as feeling like they rely on you for success. So there’s a whole other element of responsibility that you have, and it makes everything matter a lot more. I also think the closeness of our team makes it a lot easier to transition from being an individual that’s focused on winning to now focusing on the team winning.

TM: Pretty much exactly what he said. In the juniors, we’re only playing for ourselves, in a way. Tennis is an individual sport. For other sports, they’ve played on teams before. We’re not used to that. So I think coming in not only representing yourself but also representing your team’s coaches, your program in general, that’s not what we’re used to. So it’s created a different environment, but I think we’re all adapting well. 

A: What have been some of your highlights from the fall season? 

TM: The invitational was what we were most proud of. We won the invitational, but we also got through a lot of adversity. There were two really close matches that we played, and we fought [them] off in a tiebreaker. So I just think to go through those competitive matches, and to come out winning, made it feel so much better.

JB: I’d also say why I think that win was so special was because, throughout, the fall season, we were getting our feet under us. [We are] a young team, [and we were] playing more experienced players throughout the invitational and all the different fall tournaments. But we were having a tough day so far. I lost my singles. I think pretty much everyone was out of the singles at that point. The doubles was the last one. And to make that statement at the very end, to show the kind of level we could play at, made it so special. 

A: What other challenges have you faced throughout the season? 

TM: To speak for myself, I felt disappointed in the way that I had played up until [the Invitational]. But I think our coaches stress letting go of things that we can’t control and letting go of the past and focusing on what’s ahead of us. I think that helped me a lot [to] play my best tennis at the end. 

JB: I agree with that as well. We had a lot of tough losses. We came out with a lot of energy to leave that last statement at the end. 

A: What are your biggest takeaways from the season? 

JB: The four freshmen, we all have an idea of what college tennis is [now]. It’s a lot more rowdy than normal tennis. People are cheering. People might say things to you, people might call some line calls. It’s just how it is in college tennis. We got our feet under us, and we’re used to that now. So none of that’s going to phase us when we get into the spring. So that high energy’s going to be the key component, especially when we’re talking about the doubles point. And that’s why it was very good for us. We know what our energy has to be at if we want to win the doubles point, which means a lot. Especially since it’s doubles first, and then the singles after. So to show that energy and make a statement early is very important. 

A: What are you looking forward to most about the spring season? 

TM: I think we’re a team with a lot of potential, and I think we can really do a lot of damage not only at the NESCAC level but also at the national level. I’m really looking forward to what our team can do this year, but also in the upcoming years because we’re so young. But for this spring season, I would say we can have a lot of success. The sky’s the limit.

 

Cameron Bonnevie can be reached at cbonnevie@wesleyan.edu.