On Sunday the Cardinal men’s tennis team journeyed up to Waterville, Maine to face Colby in the team’s first NESCAC match of year, which ended in a 6-3 defeat. For the past three seasons, the winner has alternated between the Cardinals and Mules, with Colby winning in 2008, Wesleyan last spring, and Colby this year.
“There is absolutely a possibility of a rivalry developing between Wes and Colby,” said team captain Garrett Blank ’11.
Despite the loss, the team’s top singles and doubles players powered through and pulled out victories. At the top position on the singles ladder, Jeff Legunn ’13 won his match, 4-6, 7-6, 6-0, and the No. 1 doubles team of Legunn and Michael Piderit ’12 secured an 8-2 win. The only other point in the match came from a victory from Alex Hirsch ’13, 6-4, 6-4.
“In singles I played well,” Hirsch said. “The kid I played against had a big serve and was good at returning. Anytime I hit a ball well and it did what I wanted, that’s always kind of nice because you feel like you can do that every time. It’s a confidence booster.”
The Cards had to make a few quick adjustments facing both a change in the line-up and change in court surfaces.
Ravy Uong ’13, who usually plays at No. 3 singles and No. 2 doubles with Hirsch, did not play after missing a practice prior to the match. Instead, Hirsch was paired with Blank in doubles play, falling 3-8.
“It was good playing with Garrett,” Hirsch said. “We had to figure some things out as we were playing.”
With one player out, however, another player made his first mark of the year. Donald Kleckner ’13 played his first match since recovering from a shoulder injury. He was in the middle of a demanding tiebreaking third set when the lights suddenly turned off. The point was reset and it was difficult for Kleckner to get back into a groove, and he ended the match with a tough defeat (4-6, 6-4, 6-7).
Another obstacle the team had to overcome was the different court surface at Colby. The team is used to playing on its home surface on the Vine Street courts, but the match was played on Colby’s indoor courts, which feature a faster surface that takes time to adjust to.
“The home team has won the last three matchups, which makes sense because the surface of the tennis court makes a big difference,” Blank said. “We came out of the match thinking that if we played them on our home surface, we would have beaten them.”
The season is still young and the Cards know what is necessary to improve in order to strengthen their game. Both Blank and Hirsch agree that doubles can improve by winning all three matches and setting the team up for singles matches.
“Losing two out of three doubles, you go into singles with a lot of pressure needing to win four out of six [matches],” Hirsch said. “No matter what position you play on the team, all the points count.”
The Cardinals got a midweek tune-up in preparation for this weekend’s matches, hosting in-state rival Trinity on Thursday. Wesleyan was unable to avoid its ninth straight match loss against the Bantams, as Trinity earned its second straight 9-0 victory and won every point for the fourth straight match. Trinity won the prior two matches by scores of 7-0, as only one point was awarded to the team that won the most doubles matches at the time.
With another week’s worth of practices, the Cards will head up to Clinton, N.Y. to face Hamilton on Saturday.
“As Coach always says, ‘You only celebrate a win for 15 minutes and you only grieve a loss for 15 minutes,’” Blank said. “This match is behind us and we are looking forward to the rest of our spring matches.”
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