The Wesleyan men’s tennis team headed to Florida with high hopes after a solid 3-2 record in the Fall Season. Led by tri-captains Michael Frank ’08, Pauri Pandian ’08 and Max Schenkein ’08 the Cardinals were able to start the spring season with a strong 4-3 victory over Youngstown State, who had beaten the Cards soundly just a year ago. Singles wins for Frank and Schenkein helped Wesleyan prevail in the season opener.
Just a day later, the team traveled to the sandy beaches of Miami to play Saint Thomas University and continued its success with a 7-2 triumph. The top five singles players won their matches headed by four straight set victories by Juniors Matt O’Connell at #1, Paul Gerdes at #3 and Graham Immerman at #5 as well as Frank at #4. Pandian was the last of the five Cards who was able to pull through in a tight 7-6 win in the third.
The Cardinals finished their tour of the Sunshine State against Northwood University in a tough, competitive 5-4 defeat. Wesleyan split the singles matches with wins from O’Connell, Frank and Alejandro Alvarado ’08, but unfortunately it was not enough; the Cards had lost two out of three in the doubles matches earlier in the day. Overall, after some fun in the sun, the team returned in good spirits as they acclimated to the colder climate of New England to prepare to battle for the rest of the season.
This weekend, the Cards will face two tough NESCAC opponents, as they travel to play Little Three rival Amherst on Saturday at 2 p.m. and return home to play Bowdoin on Sunday at 3 p.m. It will be important for the squad to fare well in these matches as they start up the NESCAC season and look to continue their winning ways that they started down south.
Wesleyan looks to rebound from losses to both these teams a year ago, as they did against Youngstown State, and carry on their current momentum.
Last spring, the team finished 7-8, a record that the Cards will look to improve on this year. Despite losing a pair of top players, the Cards still have a solid core and with strong senior leadership as well as a superb junior class, Wesleyan has the ability to fight for a playoff position this season in the extremely talented and difficult NESCAC conference.
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