Both the men’s and women’s tennis teams kicked off their official NESCAC spring season against Tufts on Saturday. With each team brimming with confidence after successful Florida trips- especially the women who went undefeated in five matches- they appeared to be ready to take on the Jumbos. Unfortunately, it was a cruel weekend for the Cardinals, as the men were beaten 5-2 and the women were dispatched somewhat less ceremoniously, 9-0.
“Even though we lost, every match was close,” said men’s co-captain Ari Levin ’04. “The scores for every match were like 6-4 or 6-3 and there were no blowouts.”
The team struggled with taking advantage of opportunities that came up during the course of the match. Levin fell victim to this malady.
“I lost a couple of games in which I was up 40-0,” said Levin. “Our coach has told us that we are bad at winning the big points and need to get better at it. I’m not sure if it is something that is mental or how to work on it.”
While this weekend the team was disappointed with the outcome, there were clearly some positives that came out of the match.
“I thought that the doubles went really well for us,” said Levin. “It is really nice to have those doubles points to start out with. Max Kates ’06 had a big singles win for us and also won his doubles match with Jack Rooney ’07. Max worked really hard this week, maybe he had some sort of rivalry with the kid he was playing against because he was incredibly intense.”
Levin is confident that this is a team that can make some noise within the NESCAC. Overall team depth is a characteristic that is important for a tennis team and the Cardinals are blessed with a plentiful assortment of talent.
“Even the guys who don’t necessarily play every match are able to step up and compete when asked to,” Levin said. “One through six we have a strong lineup which always gives us a chance to win.”
The team’s next match will be against bitter Little Three rival Amherst on Saturday. Traditionally, Amherst has been able to handle Wesleyan rather easily, but last year was a different story.
“We beat them for the first time in like twenty years last year,” Levin said. “Hopefully we can start up our own streak against them.”
For the women’s team, it was an equally difficult weekend. Unlike the men, they were unable to pick up any individual victories. However, the overall score was not a fair representation of the hard work and effort put in by the Cardinals.
“I think that the we handled the match well and everyone played the best they could,” said co-captain Sarah Colao ’04. “Tufts is just a great team with a lot of great players.”
While it might seem reasonable to be discouraged after a match such as this, Colao and her teammates are excited about the prospects for the spring season.
“The spring season is shorter than the fall one,” Colao said. “So our upcoming matches are very important. But I don’t see any reason why we can’t win. We are coming off a good trip from Florida where everyone played really well.”
Wesleyan travels to Smith Wednesday to try and regain the form that propelled them to five consecutive victories in Florida. Because the spring season is so much shorter than the one in the fall, getting back to their best is something that the Cardinals will want to do as quickly as possible.
“We have only three more matches,” Colao said. “After that, we have the NESCAC tournament. Unlike the match against Tufts, the matches leading up to the tournament are all against evenly matched teams, so we will have chances to win.”
One thing that both the men and women’s team share is a universal optimism towards the spring season. Whether that optimism will lead to victories remains to be seen.
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