Sometimes it only takes one match to turn a season around. For the Wesleyan Men’s Tennis team, they hope this was the one. After suffering three tough losses in every variety, the Cardinals pounded the Babson Beavers Tuesday for their second victory of the spring season, winning 6-1 on the road.
“The Babson win was good for our confidence, particularly to come away with such a strong showing all the way down the lineup,” said Evan Rhodes ’05. “We lost some heartbreakers last week, so to get a good old fashioned ass whoopin’ under our belts, our collective confidence is back in the black.”
From the moment the Cardinals arrived at Babson Park, it was clear they meant business as the team’s top two players, Max Kates ’06 and Tallen Todorovich ’07, both took home match opening victories. Kates, who dropped the first set 4-6, won the second set 7-6 and the third set, played as a super tiebreaker (first to 10 points), 11-9.
]“The second set tiebreaker was pretty intense,” Kates said. “I went down 4-9 in that, and than managed to win the next 7 points in a row to take the breaker and the match. My opponent chucked his racquet over the fence. It was a pretty rowdy match but I still managed to win and I am thrilled about that.”
Todorovich, meanwhile, stormed through his match, winning 6-0, 6-2 and playing solid fundamental tennis.
“I personally played a great match,” Todorovich said. “The amount of winners I hit clearly out weighed the number of errors I made.”
In the third spot, the Cardinals suffered their only loss of the afternoon with Matt Cron ’05 falling in his third set super tiebreaker. But the loss did not translate into a loss of momentum as Rhodes, Mike Roguly ’05 and Jack Rooney ’07 all followed with victories. “My match wasn’t pretty, but in the end all that counts is the W,” Rhodes said. “It was good to win knowing that I wasn’t playing my best, and to know that even if my focus wasn’t 100 percent where it should’ve been, I could pull it together when it mattered most.”
The Cardinals continued their strong play in the doubles matches, winning at the second and third spots with the pairs of Kates and Rooney and Cron and Roguly, respectively.
“Jack and I rolled on dubs,” Kates said. “We played extremely smart, controlling our power and getting to net against two baseliners. We broke them at will, and played our best match this year.”
“Mike Roguly and I had a huge win at number three doubles,” Cron said. “We started out slow but won six out of the last seven games, really attacking the net and doing well on return of serves. Roguly’s been working out hard in the weight room and he was on fire during the end of the set.”
When the dust cleared in Babson Park, the Cardinals had their second win of the season and had snapped a frustrating losing streak.
“It feels great to break our three-match losing streak,” Cron said. “We had a couple of tough losses but our dominating victory is more indicative of our overall talent.”
Kates, however, was not convinced the win was a true turn-around point.
“It feels nice, but winning once does not break a three game slide in my mind,” he said. “We need to take the next two matches and keep rolling. We expect a win, nothing less.” “We are all playing great tennis now and I am confident you will see us win at least a couple matches in a row,” Todorovich said.
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