This past weekend, the men's tennis team began its march to a victorious season with a successful weekend at the Yale Invitational Tournament. Coach Chuck Kinyon's main objective was to get some match time under his team's belt.
"As always, we begin with the Yale tournament with the concept of getting our players lots of competitive play," Kinyon said.
But the Big Green did more than just play. They won big matches.
With co-Captain Avery Rueb '00 and Andrew Evans '00 out of the line-up due to preseason injuries, Kinyon felt the team might not have the depth it usually does. But, knowing that they needed to bring it up a notch, the Big Green played tremendous tennis and finished the weekend strong.
Co-Captain Matt Fuller '97, playing in the A division, won his first round match handily, but went down fighting in a tough second round match, losing to eventually division winner Jon Beardsley of Yale.
Gabe Sauerhoff '99, also in the A division, had to drop out of the first round when he pulled a hamstring, leaving him unable to finish the match. Despite the pulled muscle, Sauerhoff will be on the courts in a couple of days.
Erich Holzer '99 fell in the second round to Jaime Gonzales of Harvard, while fellow teammate Austin Hawley '99, though losing in the first round, went on the win the backdraw of the C-division.
The talk of the weekend, though, was the freshmen. With much of the team's success resting on the newcomers, Charles Drimal '00, Rob Chen '00 and Walter Brown '00 rose to meet the challenge. Brown made it to the second round before facing defeat.
Drimal and Chen played with confidence and aggressiveness that is rarely seen in freshmen players. Chen, with his consistency , and Drimal, with his big game, fought their way to the finals where Drimal was the eventual winner.
"Rob and Charles showed the impact the freshman are going to make this year," Holzer said.
The sweetest win came from the mighty duo of fellow sophomores Rob Simik and Austin Hawely. Serving huge and volleying hard, the big, bad duo downed Yale's top doubles team to advanced to the finals.
"I think that we proved that we are a force this year," Kirk Spahn '99 said, "not so much by star individual performances, but by the all-around depth of the team."
With such a good show last weekend, the Big Green hope repeat it when they face Boston University and the University of Vermont this Sunday at home.
