It was a weekend of ups and downs for the men’s tennis team in Kalamazoo. Coming off a defeat to national powerhouse Ohio State Wednesday, the team rebounded Friday to blank a tough Northern Iowa team 7-0.
“Everything we wanted to do, we did,” said coach Jay Harris. “We beat a very good team.”
The following day, the Falcons stumbled against Illinois State, dropping the match 5-2, before coming back to defeat Kalamazoo 5-2. By winning two of the three matches this weekend, the men’s team improved to 5-3 in dual match play.
The loss to Illinois State, according to Harris, may have had something to do with the teams’ attitude coming into the match.
“I think we got a little bit overconfident because of how well we played the night before,” said Harris. “I was really disappointed in how we came out mentally to play that match.”
Despite the loss, the ability of the Falcons to come back and emerge victorious over Kalamazoo only reinforced the coaches belief in the team’s ability to overcome adversity.
“I think the match against Kalamazoo proved that this team has a lot of heart,” said Harris, who was particularly pleased with the play of senior Mike Kossoff. “I told the team that someone had to step up, and Mike really went into his match thinking that there was no way he was going to lose.”
The Falcons are now off until February 16th, when they play Drake. They had played seven games in eight days.
