The Wesleyan men’s tennis team wrapped up its spring season of conference play this past Sunday, suffering a 8-1 loss to the Bates Bobcats in the Bacon Field House. The Cardinals finished their spring season with a dual-match record of 9-10 and a NESCAC record of 1-8.
The team was looking to finish up this season with a strong win, but the Bates team also had the same goal. The Cardinals had difficulty in the doubles matches, which did not set them up well for the singles round. In the singles matches, four of the six Cardinals had close matches. But in the end, the Bobcats proved to be too much for the Cardinals, giving up only one point to number one singles player Jeff Legunn ’13.
In the singles matches, Legunn won his match 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. At No. 2, Michael Piderit ’12 fell 6-1, 0-6, 1-6, and Alex Hirsch ’13, at number three singles, suffered a 1-6, 0-6 loss. Ravy Uong ’13 played two consistent sets but fell short, 4-6, 4-6. At number five singles, Don Kleckner ’13 fell 1-8 in a shortened match, and Michael Glen ’13 suffered a tough loss, 7-9, at number six singles in another shortened match.
Legunn was on serve for much of the entire first set and was able to break his opponent in the 4-4 tie. He lost the second set, but was able to come out strong on the third set, defeating Bates’ top singles player.
“The hardest couple of points were when I was serving for the match,” Legunn said. “The nerves set in a little when I was trying to close out the match, but I still played well enough to finish it off.”
The three Cardinal doubles teams were unable to produce a win against the Bobcats. The No. 1 doubles team of Uong and Piderit fell 2-8, and the number-two duo of Kleckner and Hirsch was defeated by the same score. In the number three doubles spot, the team of Legunn and Glen fell 1-8.
“I thought that we had a good chance of winning this match going into it,” said team captain Garrett Blank ’11. “But they were much more aggressive in doubles, which created a difficult uphill battle for us in singles.”
Continuing with the new doubles lineup from the Conn. College match, the Cardinal team looked to find the right combinations of players to help the team play the best it can in future seasons.
The Bates match marked the end of the 2010 spring season for Wesleyan tennis. The top six teams in the conference, all of whom are nationally ranked among the top thirty teams of Division III, make it to the NESCAC Tournament held in early May at Amherst.
This year, the Wesleyan tennis team had a young starting lineup of five freshmen and one sophomore. With a season’s worth of NESCAC play under their belts, the freshmen all have an idea of what is needed next year to make it to the next level. Throughout the season, the team showed great potential, and the results of this season can serve as motivation for the team to work hard for the upcoming fall season.
With the season over, the young Cardinals team will look to improve their match mentality and tennis abilities.
“The weakest part of our game is our match toughness and competitiveness.” Blank said. “The way to improve this is by playing a lot of matches in the offseason.”
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