Men’s tennis ends season, women’s faces final game
by Jesus Jimenez
The two tennis teams gathered to play in the Trueblood gym on Monday, two days after their regular season wrapped up at Wittenberg. The men played just for fun; the women practiced for a final chance at tomorrow’s North Coast Athletic Conference tournament.
The men’s team ended the season with a 9-0 loss to Wittenberg, while the women lost 8-1 to Wittenberg and a close 5-4 match against Wooster on the same day. The women travel to Gambier, Ohio tomorrow where Kenyon will host this year’s NCAC tournament.
Late last week, both teams pulled out wins against Central State for the second time this season. The men won 9-0 and the women’s team fell just short of a shutout, winning 8-1. Monday’s women’s match against Rose-Hulman was canceled due to injuries on Earlham’s team.
“Basically, we’ve got some injuries and stuff – that’s kind of hurting us – and then we’ve got a conference tournament to get ready for, so we need to rest,” explained Head Coach Adam Van Zee. “This weekend we have a conference tournament. It will be tough: we’re gonna go in as the eighth seed. We’re playing Denison, which is the one seed.”
The women’s team lost 9-0 in the season opener at Denison and hopes to compete better this weekend.
“It will be a tough first one, but we’ve got some matches after the first one that we’ve got a chance to pull an upset, so hopefully we will. We also got Wooster, which we lost to this weekend 5-4, so hopefully we can get an upset.”
Sophomore Cory Mathieu admits that the team struggled, but after a few wins towards the end of the season, she goes into tomorrow’s tournament with her head held high.
“I would say that this season has been a growing year for women’s tennis. We had a lot of fun and really improved as a team. The tournament will be a challenge for us, but we are going to go into it with an optimistic attitude.”
As a multi-sport athlete, Mathieu has been part of two very successful soccer teams in her two years at Earlham, so the tennis season left her with a different taste.
“Playing tennis this spring was an experience for my personal growth as a player, and I wasn’t expecting much success. I really improved during the season, so I am not disappointed at all in how it turned out despite the match scores. Soccer is a sport in which I expect to compete; tennis is a sport in which I hope to constantly improve.”
The 5-4 loss to Wooster saw four quick victories for Earlham, as the top four women — sophomores Rebecca Ogle, Nora Mineva and Miriam Holzman-Lipsitz and freshman Alex Softness — gave Earlham a 4-0 lead starting off the match against Wooster with four singles victories. The college of Wooster won the last two singles matches and swept the doubles portion to take the match 5-4. This came after an 8-1 loss to Wittenberg in the morning match of a doubleheader for the women.
The Wittenberg Tigers will also be at the conference tournament, along with Ohio Wesleyan, Kenyon, Oberlin and Allegheny.
MEN’S TEAM LOOKS TO NEXT SEASON
While the women’s team looks to tomorrow, the men’s team looks to next season, as they failed to make the conference tournament. Their 9-0 loss at Wittenberg was reminiscent of how the team played early in the season. The team started the season 0-7, with only three match wins in those first seven games, but ended the season 4-3 in the last seven games.
Van Zee sees this as a good turnaround, but hopes for more out of the team in the upcoming years.
“I don’t wanna say [the men’s team] lived up to our expectations, but in a way we did. We beat the teams we’re supposed to beat, we lost to the teams we were supposed to lose to—which it was good to do what we expected, but obviously we want a little more out of it. Hopefully, we can at least take it into next year.”
He also does not shy away from saying that scheduling had a lot to do with the turnaround, but also sees a good outlook going into next year.
“Our schedule was a little lighter at the end — it definitely was — but we played a couple of teams twice, and we played them better the second time, so that’s definitely good. We definitely did finish stronger than we started, which is good. We made a lot of improvements moving into next year.”
Sophomores Josué Rivera and Colin Swihart, along with freshman David Bluestein, led the team with four individual wins each. Sophomore Michael Von Vogt, Junior Aaron Weeden and freshman Nabil Parkar were right behind with three wins each.
Rivera looks to work at his game this off-season and come back to play next year.
“Personally, I feel I’ve got to improve on my technical skills, like volleying — all that kind of stuff — and play a lot during the summer, you know, it’s all about getting into the game.”
He sees the season as disappointing, but also points to the future with optimism.
“It seems like we weren’t expecting much as a team in general, but somehow, when we played opponents that are at our level, or a little bit less than us, we were able to pull through and win. But I think it’s a work in progress in general. Overall, I think we could’ve done much better.”
Van Zee sees the future with optimism, but knows he will have to step up his game as a coach in a tough conference.
“Every year I hope to higher my own expectations and continue for the athletes to higher their expectations as well,” he said. “Next year I know the schedule’s gonna be a little tougher. We’ll have obviously a couple recruits come in that hopefully can make an impact, and you know, hopefully, we’ll just be a better team.”
“I had a blast playing — can’t wait for the fall season to start,” added Rivera. “Adam’s a good coach; he knows what he’s talking about. He’s doing his best at recruiting, trying to bring good players to Earlham College.”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
