The men's tennis team will host its only home fall matches this Sunday against the University of Vermont and Boston University without its top two players, but the Big Green will look to a talented group of freshmen to lead the team on the courts.
Team captain Holden Spaht '96 and number one player Jim Rich '96 will not play this weekend because they are competing this week in the National Clay Court Championships in Baltimore. The team earned a spot in the championships by winning a qualifying tournament. They should return to the team next week.
Rich and Spaht were also missing last weekend when the Big Green competed at the Yale Invitational, which meant the Big Green had no idea what to expect when they headed to the invitational with six new freshmen who were playing in their first collegiate matches. While the team did not capture a Cinderella victory, the freshmen strung together some impressive performances that will serve as building blocks for the upcoming fall season.
The Big Green did capture one title as freshman Austin Hawley won the consolation bracket in the C division.
Hawley's victory came as a result of three straight wins after losing the opening match of the invitational. He rebounded to beat his next two opponents from Providence and Temple, winning both matches 6-1, 6-1. In the consolation final, Hawley defeated John Weber of Providence 7-5 and 6-1.
"It was nice to get a few matches under my belt and get some experience," Hawley said. "The first match was really nerve-racking, but after that I was able to settle down and focus on playing tennis."
Aside from Hawley, one other Big Green member made the finals of the consolation bracket. Freshman Gabe Sauerhoff lost in the finals of the consolation draw ofthe B division after beating opponents from Brown and Temple.
Another freshman who turned in an impressive performance was Erich Holzer. Holzer, who was playing in the A division, lost his opening match to Harvard's top player 6-2 and 6-2. In his next match against Boston College's Steve Murray, Holzer battled back after losing the opening set tiebreaker first set to win a marathon three hour and 15 minute match by the score of 6-7, 7-5 and 6-4. He ended the tournament splitting the first two sets with Temple's number two player but dropping the final set in a tiebreaker.
"Eric played pretty well, and I was definitely pleased with his performance," Coach Chuck Kinyon said.
"I learned a lot about what the freshman could do through their performances last weekend," Kinyon said. "We're going to need them throughout the fall to be an integral part of our team, especially in match play when they are going to be called upon to win some key matches and give our team some points."
"It was a great opportunity to start playing some matches, realizing that once we were on the court we were no longer freshmen but collegiate tennis players," Sauerhoff said.
Over the weekend, the freshmen were led by returning letter winners Matt Fuller '97 and Avery Rueb '98.Fuller won his opening match against a Yale opponent before falling in the second round to Thomas Blake of Harvard. Rueb teamed up with freshman Rob Simik for one of the invitational's better matches, losing a tightly contested A division doubles match to Harvard, 9-7.
"Matt had a real good tournament playing as our top player," Kinyon said. "I was also really pleased with the play of Avery [Rueb] and Rob [Simik]. They really played a good match even though they lost."
"Although we have a lot of freshman, the important thing is that they have great backup in the talent of the upperclassmen to rely on," Kinyon said.
The Big Green hopes to use the experience gained from last weekend to come out with two victories this weekend against Vermont and BU and to prepare the team for further fall competition, which ends with the ECAC tournament Oct. 5-9.
"Those matches [Vermont and BU] will be good tune-ups for the ECAC because the first jitters are out of the way and we can focus on tennis and see how good we really are," Sauerhoff said.
"The main goal of the fall schedule is to prepare for the ECAC tournament in two weeks ," Kinyon said. "If all goes well, we should enter the tournament as the third or fourth seed."
With a young team, improvement will be key.
"Everybody is just looking to improve during each match heading into theECAC tournament so we can have a good showing there," Hawley said.
