Men’s Tennis is California Dreamin
Feb. 27
The spring tennis season is coming into full swing. We’ve already passed four early tests with flying colors and we leave for our tough California swing in a week. The team was particularly pleased with our effort last Saturday against West Virginia Wesleyan. This is a team that almost beat us in the fall and last weekend we really dominated them start to finish. We ended up winning 7-2, but this easily could have been a 9-0 win for us. The following day, we took on a very determined Case Western team. I have to credit our doubles in this one because we jumped out to an early 3-0 lead against three good doubles teams from Case. We ended up winning the match 9-0, but this was a good early season test for us. The quality of play so far this season has been significantly better than this same time the past two years. Everyone’s motivation is really great right now and we are ready to take on new challenges in California.
We are ranked 15th in the country in the most recent poll by d3tennis.blogspot.com. This is about where we expect to be, but we definitely have top 10 potential. For us, how well we transition from indoor to outdoor tennis will be a big factor in our success. Out in California, we play No. 18 UT-Tyler and No. 13 Redlands, both of whom play outside all year round. We also have a big match against No. 10 Bowdoin. The Bowdoin and Redlands matches both will play a role in NCAA selection. Due to the complex structure of the NCAA selection process in Division III tennis, every match is huge for us. There are only seven spots in the NCAA tournament for teams that don’t win their conference, and unfortunately for us, the top two teams in the country are in the UAA.
Everyone is really looking forward to the California trip partly because of tennis but also because of the genuine bonding experience we get out there. The men’s tennis team is a really close-knit group, but California seems to bring us closer every year. Daily trips to Jamba Juice and In-N-Out Burger as well as our visit to Kelly Hart’s gorgeous house in Newport Beach really highlight the trip for everyone. The tennis is competitive out there but we also have a lot of down time and I think both teams really make the most of it.
We’ve been lucky to get outside the past few days and hopefully we’ll be able to do the same next week. The focus has really been on the girls’ team this past week because of their trip to National Indoors in Minnesota. We all want to wish them the best of luck there and we know they will represent CMU to the fullest and bring home the title.
I want to finish by saying that we have added two new members to the CMU tennis family for next season. Duke Miller of Poway, California and Harsha Rao of Severn, Maryland will be joining the team next year as incoming freshmen. They are both excellent players who have been ranked top 175 in the country in the graduating class of 2009 and we expect them to have a big impact on our starting lineup. Hopefully, I’ll be able to add the next chapter of the blog during our California trip, so until then Go Tartans!
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