The Washington University men’s tennis team is coming off an outstanding spring season, with hopes that this year things will only continue to improve.
Last year, the Bears finished with a 12-6 record, including impressive wins over several nationally ranked teams during the regular season, such as #5 Trinity and #25 Southwest Baptist University. In addition, they qualified for the NCAA Division III Tournament for the third consecutive year. In the first round of the championship tournament, WU upset the #16 seed, DePauw University, before falling to #7 Kalamazoo in the second round. At the conclusion of the season, the Bears found themselves ranked third in the central region, and ninth in the nation overall.
Based on their performance in the first warm-up event of the fall season, the team is off to a good start and has picked up right where they left off. This past weekend, under the direction of second-year men’s head coach Roger Follmer and women’s head coach Lynn Imergoot, the Bears hosted the 1st Annual WU Tennis Invitational at the Tao Tennis Center and Forest Park tennis courts.
Players from Graceland University (Iowa), Principia College (Illinois), and Kenyon College (Ohio) participated in both singles and doubles competition. The tournament was divided into four singles and two doubles pools for both the men and women.
WU dominated the men’s competition, finishing an impressive first or second, in each of the six brackets, except one. This meant that several WU teammates faced each other in the finals, including a close 9-7 showdown between the returning doubles team of senior co-captain Max Schlather and sophomore Shaul Yecheskel versus the freshmen duo, Ari Rosenthal and Neil Kenner. “Every one of us played well. We knew we were the best team out there and we proved it,” said Schlather.
One weakness of last year’s team was a lack of depth at the doubles positions. However, based on the results from the weekend, it is apparent that the new freshmen are having an immediate and positive impact on the team.
“We have a great recruiting class. The freshmen are very talented – if they work hard, the future of this program looks really good,” said senior David Genovese.
Spectator and fan of the tennis team, junior Ann Gilpin added, “I think the freshmen are fantastic. I went over to watch some of the matches on Saturday morning at Forest Park, and I was so impressed, with Neil especially, that I stayed for the rest of his matches.”
This past summer, even before his college career at WU began, Kenner played in several Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) summer circuit tournaments, winning one and beating several NCAA Division-I players along the way.
“All the freshmen have been working very hard, but Neil can probably be competitive with anyone in the nation, and as a freshman, that’s pretty good,” said senior co-captain Michael Thompson.
This upcoming weekend, that skill and talent will be put to the test when Kenner and three other members of the WU team, including Schlather, Yecheskel, and Rosenthal travel to DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana for the annual Omni Hotels ITA Regional Championship.
Last year, the Bears top ranked player, then-freshman Brian Alvo, amazed everyone by upsetting one ranked player after another en-route to the central region championship title, becoming the first ever WU men’s player to accomplish that feat.
Now a sophomore and studying abroad in Spain this semester, Alvo’s presence will be missed, but as Genovese explained, “Of course we wish he were here, but he will be back in the spring when it counts, and that’s all that matters.”
Thus, in the meantime, it will be up to Schlather, Yecheskel, Kenner and Rosenthal to attempt at dupliating Alvo’s success. The four enter the tournament ranked in both singles and doubles. Schlather, Yecheskel and Kenner are ranked #6, #7, and #10 in the region in singles, respectively. In doubles, Schlather and Yecheskel are #2 while Kenner and Rosenthal are not too far behind at #4. Using last weekend’s matches as a warm-up, the Bears are hoping to return to St. Louis with a repeat championship title, in both singles and doubles.
“Coming in, I really didn’t know what to expect, but this is a great group of guys with a lot of talent,” said Kenner. “Coach Follmer really knows what he is doing and we all really respect him. If we continue to play hard and compete hard, good things will happen.”