It was take two of the last game of the season for the men’s tennis team, and a hard fought battle with Salve Regina coming out on top in a 4-3 loss for the Cardinals.
After a 6-1 loss at the hands of MIT a week ago, the Cardinals thought their fall campaign was over, but the match with Salve Regina changed that as top-seeded Max Kates ’06 and the Cardinals played their best tennis of the fall and have high expectations for this spring.
“In the last five years, we have consistently been one of Wesleyan’s best teams in terms of our record. Winning is something we take pride in. We need to continue that and really step it up a notch,” Kates said, who got some personal revenge on the court. “I lost to Matt [Urbanetti] indoors this past weekend at the Rolex Invitational…but after I got off the court, I said that I could beat him outdoors. With his huge serve and huge forehand, I knew that I would have a much better shot at him outdoors where the ball moves slower and the serve is less of a weapon.”
Kates downed Urbanetti in two sets, 6-4, 7-5. Matt Cron ’05 also brought home a victory in the singles draw, beating his Salve Regina foe 6-2, 6-1 as the fourth seed.
“I’ve been working hard on my game and it paid off Monday,” Cron said. “I started out aggressively and managed to control the tempo throughout the match.”
Playing his first singles match as a Cardinal, Michael Frank ’08 earned a win with a dominating 6-2, 6-0 victory.
“It was great to have the opportunity to step up and contribute playing singles,’ Frank said. ”My opponent was a really hard worker, always chasing balls down, but I was able to get an early lead in the first set and I was able to serve and volley and really frustrate my opponent in the second set.“
Despite the good fortune Kates, Cron and Frank enjoyed, the rest of the Wesleyan singles players had a rough time, as Adam Stone ’05, Evan Rhodes ’05 and Jack Rooney ’07 all fell in their matches. The doubles matches were a mixed bag for the Cards. They managed one win, but Salve Regina clinched the match with a pair of wins.
An injury to Tallen Todorovich ’07 put Stone into the singles lineup and pushed Cron into doubles play.
”I haven’t played with someone other than Tallen for a while, so it was a bit of a different feel,“ Stone said. ”But Cron played very well, and we kept it close early on.“
Cron had his own take on the new pairing.
”Playing doubles with Adam was extremely intense,“ he said. ”The man is a warrior on the court. You could see fear in our opponent’s eyes every time Adam unleashed one of his massive serves. The man is a beast.“
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, the Salve Regina pair took advantage for an 8-3 win. Kates and Rhodes combined in the second doubles seed, but the pair ended up falling 8-5. In the third seed, Pauri Paudian ’08 and Rooney became the lone Wesleyan doubles pair to win their match, thrashing though 8-2.
With the 2004 fall tennis season finally over for Wesleyan, the 1-3 team looks ahead to a tough winter of training to prepare for a strong spring of tennis.
”The whole team had moments during the fall season where we showed our talents,“ Frank acknowledged. ”But we were definitely not satisfied with our overall record. It should be fun trying to refine that talent and get more wins in the spring.“
Stone echoed the comments of his young teammate.
”We’ve lost a lot of close matches this season,“ Stone said. ”Even though some of the team scores may not have looked that way, most of the individual matches were very competitive, so we’re almost there, and hopefully by the spring, we’ll start winning the close ones.“
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