Driving over nine hours just to play a tennis match is something that is not an easy task. Add to that having to play 75th-ranked Drake and a tough Iowa team, and that task becomes even more difficult. Yet the men’s tennis team showed how tough they are, manhandling Drake on their own court 6-1 on Saturday and then fighting Sunday until the end, losing to Iowa 6-1. The match was much closer than it seemed. Men’s coach Jay Harris was pleased with his team’s performances.
“The weekend was good, and the Drake match was great,” Harris said. “Drake is one of the best teams in their conference, and we just played well all the way down the line.”
Senior Vitek Wild called it one of the biggest wins the Falcons have had since he has been on the team.
“It was a hard match, but we beat them pretty badly,” said Wild. “In the three years I have been here, this is one of the better matches we have played.”
The team’s win was set up by big tiebreaker wins from Wild and junior Geoff Hiscox in singles. In doubles, the team was helped by the performances of Wild and sophomore Milos Jirout, who won the match 9-8 over Drake’s Jack Frankowicz and Kirk Schuler. It was these wins in the tight matches that Harris believes really made a difference.
“That was a huge point to win,” said Harris. “If we had not done that, it would have been much tougher, especially being so far away from home.”
On Sunday against Iowa, the situation was similar, with many of the matches coming down to tiebreakers. Unfortunately for BG, things were not as favorable against the Hawkeyes. Hiscox, who dropped his singles match to Iowa’s Stuart Waters in three sets (6-3, 3-6, 6-7) believes the team’s effort was just as strong as it was against Drake, despite the loss.
“One of our goals was to go out against a Big Ten team, compete, and play a complete match,” said Hiscox. “I think we did that.” Wild, who lost his singles match to Iowa’s Peter Mandek in two tight sets (6-4, 6-4), said the team was not upset with the results, only a little bit disappointed.
“We are disappointed that we didn’t win the match, but the whole team played their hardest,” said Wild. “The match really could have gone either way.”
The team is now off until March 1, when it plays Xavier in Cincinnati. Hiscox believes the break will help the team after the hard-fought weekend.
“Everyone is pretty sore and we just need to rest for a couple of days,” said Hiscox. “It’s a good break after a weekend like that, both physically and mentally.”
