The Washington University men’s tennis team spent the weekend in St. Peter, Minn. for the 2008 ITA National Team Indoor Championships. The ITA invites eight of the top teams in Division III to Gustavus Adolphus College to compete for both ranking position and bragging rights for the rest of the spring season.
After a canceled flight on Thursday morning due to the weather, the No. 7 Bears were able to catch a plane to Minnesota early the next morning in time to face off against No. 6 DePauw.
“DePauw is going to be an important match for us,” said junior captain Mark Partridge. “We had a really tough loss to them at home last year, and it definitely hurt us in the rankings up to nationals last spring. It’s important to get a decisive win over the Tigers and thereby really establish ourselves as one of the very top teams this year.”
The Bears were not to disappoint. Wash. U. brought out the broomstick, as the Bears swept all three doubles points. Cutler and Hoeland brought home an 8-6 win at number one doubles, while Stein and Watts (No. 2), as well as Woods and Choradia (No. 3) both brought home 8-4 victories. The three wins helped carry momentum into singles, where the Bears won four of the six matches, giving them a solid 7-2 victory.
“The DePauw match was a good step, and a good sign to everybody that we came to play,” said assistant coach Jason Evans.
The win advanced Wash. U. into the semifinals, where they faced No. 1 UC Santa Cruz on Saturday. The Bears fell behind early, losing all three of the doubles points in tight contests. However, not to let the Banana Slugs early lead discourage them, the Bears fought hard during singles competition, but were only able to claim three of the five matches needed to win.
“We’re right there. We fought back hard after the tough momentum swing in doubles. I’m encouraged by our singles play, and I’m excited to play against this level of competition again in May,” said Evans.
The 6-3 loss moved Wash. U. into its final match for third place against bitter UAA rival the Emory Eagles. Avenging their tough loss on Saturday, the Bears steamrolled through doubles competition, grabbing all three matches. With this solid lead to work with, the Bears also came through in the singles, as Watts, Levy, Hoeland and Stein all helped the team to an important 7-2 win.
The weekend was a great success for the program and an excellent sign of the potential of this team. However, the trip also exhibited a distressing fact about athletics at Washington University. Due to funding, only half of the team was able to celebrate the successes in Minnesota. The other half, as well as assistant coaches Jason Evans and Ben Luehrs, had to stay in St. Louis, even for the most important regular season weekend of the spring. While the Bears’ performance this weekend is great sign of good things to come, one can’t help but wonder that they should be able to both accept defeats and celebrate victories together.