The Elizabethtown College men’s tennis team came home from their spring break trip to the Southeast Regional Championships at Hilton Head Island, S.C. with no victories over the four schools they competed against, but with a lot of experience gained and no loss of pride.
The first match was on Monday, March 2 against York College. Coming out on top with a 5-4 win, senior Michael Cannon and sophomore Alex Machalick started out with two wins off the bat in the beginning of the singles round, and though the men of the tennis team put up a fight, York had three consecutive wins before sophomore Nathan Dowling managed to bring it back to a 3-3 deadlock by the end of the singles round. York finished the doubles round with two wins to Etown’s one, courtesy of Cannon and Machalick.
The next day, the Blue Jays faced off with St. John Fisher College. Fisher’s Kevin Kulawiec and Patrick McGrath saw the first two victories over Etown, but sophomore Ryan Caris put a stop to that streak. “I think we competed very well against St. John Fisher,” Caris said. “We won a bunch of really tight matches in singles, which they probably weren’t expecting.” With a few more points here and there, Etown could have taken the match. After another Fisher win, junior Evan Hinkley and Dowling finished out the singles round with an even 3-3. Again, it was down to the doubles competition to make the tiebreak. St. John Fisher won the first two rounds with Hinkley and first-year Michael Yost winning the final round. Fisher ended up taking the day with a close 5-4.
March 5 saw Roanoke College perform very well against the Blue Jays in the singles round, with Machalick taking one victory during the singles round and Roanoke taking the other five. It was mathematically impossible for Etown to take the match and as a result, Roanoke forfeited the entire doubles round.
On March 5, Etown faced tough competition against Mount Union College. Mount Union won every single and every double game. Cannon played very strongly in the beginning of his singles round, but his opponent, Malcolm Leake managed to catch up in the second set. In the tiebreaker, Cannon lost momentum, leading to a Mount Union victory.
Coach Matt Helsel said that the reason the team did not perform well was because it is currently going through a rebuilding stage, with every match vitally important for getting experience under the belts of the team members. “Based on what I saw last week, we’re ready to compete,” Helsel said. Members of the team share those sentiments. “We’re a young team in a tough conference, so we know that in order to be successful we need to do all the little things to give us an edge,” Caris said. “At the beginning of our trip we decided that one of our main focuses this season was going to be to compete well regardless of the scores out there, and I think we did that.”
Despite the losses, Cannon said, “I would say that each member of the team competed hard down at Hilton Head. Coming out of the fall, everyone on the team has made strides in their development as tennis players. That being said, however, we all still have more work to do and are excited to get back outside to start practicing as we prepare for the season ahead of us.” Elizabethtown’s team was projected to finish sixth in this season’s conference. “We know that if we work hard and give our best effort at every practice and every match, we can surprise some teams and exceed those expectations,” Caris said.
