A Look Back, With a Look Forward

Jan. 7

The CMU men’s tennis team is coming off a record-breaking season in the spring of 2008 and we are looking to better that performance this upcoming year. Some of the highlights of last season were a year-end national ranking of #14, a GLCA Championship, and the team’s first-ever showing in the NCAA Sweet 16. Some individuals also had big wins throughout the season. Alex Nemerov defeated an NCAA Semifinalist and the nation’s #5 player and senior Andrew Clearfield also defeated the nation’s #8 player from Johns Hopkins. Ravi Raghavan and Bobby Mactaggart pulled the upset of the year and beat the #4 doubles team in the country, leading us to victory over seventh-ranked Kenyon at the GLCA. I won’t hesitate to say that was the biggest team win in the history of CMU tennis. We have two outstanding freshmen, but we’ll miss the leadership of graduate Andrew Clearfield. It’s not uncommon that members of the team wake up in the morning and say, “Wow, I wish Ace was still here.”

We carried last year’s momentum into this fall and defended our title at the Allegheny Invitational with a tough 5-4 win against a talented team from Division II West Virginia Wesleyan. This gave us momentum going into the fall ITA Tournament and James Muliawan won the regional and then went on to place sixth in nationals. He enters the spring as the #9 ranked singles player in the country. Amherst College also came down to play us in one of our few home matches and despite a 6-3 loss, we played very close with the #7 team in the country. This told us that we really can compete with the best in the nation.

We enter the spring season with a #16 national ranking and a very tough schedule. We start with three matches before heading to California where we begin the tough part of our season. We play five matches out there, three of them against ITA Top 25 teams. We can go 5-0 just as easily as we could go 2-3. In the past, this trip has really set the tone for the rest of our season. We went 4-1 in Cali with a huge win against #10 Bowdoin last year, which gave us confidence going into the rest of our season. On a side note, Ravi was pretty infatuated with the going out of business sale at the Hollywood Video next to our hotel, so that’s where he spent most of his time while also posting a record of 9-1 on our trip and earning “Spring Break MVP” honors.

The emphasis on our team is always on doubles. This is our weakness and sometimes really hurts us in big matches. In my time at CMU, we’ve only lost twice in 33 matches after winning at least 2 of 3 in doubles. We have one of the best singles lineups in the country, so coach always tries numerous different combinations in an attempt to strengthen our doubles. We have a deep team and everyone is improving their doubles, so this could be a breakout year for us.

On a lighter note, we just got the news that senior Yiran Liu may be staying for a fifth year to get his masters and could potentially be inquiring about an assistant coach position. However, I would recommend him as Kevin’s assistant in the strength and conditioning department. I’ll most likely be writing my next article around the time of California so until then, Go Tartans!

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