As the Oberlin College men’s and women’s tennis teams get ready for another season, coach Don Hunsinger looks toward building on last year’s results.
Returning players for the men’s team are sophomore captain Jamie Frankel and sophomore assistant captain Marian Bocek, as well as juniors Matt Fairbanks, Matt Isaacs, Jason Criscione and Ashvin Raj. Rounding out the squad are sophomore newcomers Siddharth Dugar, Ben Musher and Lawrence Kimbrough and first-years Mark Knee, Nick Ogren, Brad White and Ananya Balaram.
Coach Hunsinger said of the preseason, “So far we’ve had pretty good practices. A lot of nagging injuries on the men’s side, and a few on the women’s side. We don’t know what everybody is capable of, but we’re excited about some of the new people. We have three or four people that time will tell where exactly they’ll fit in. We saw a few people play in the fall and we’re encouraged by that.”

The men will be looking to improve on their performance from last year, when the Yeomen finished with a record of 7-17 overall and 1-4 in North Coast Athletic Conference competition, ranking seventh in the conference. The main goals for the team this year will be to go .500 in the NCAC, and more importantly, to have an injury-free season. Regarding the former, first-year Ananya Balaram said, “The team is a young team comprising four freshman and four sophomores. The singles players are good and will hopefully have a winning record.”
The Oberlin women are coming off of a better performance last year and will also hope to capitalize on the addition of talented new players. The Yeowomen will be captained by junior Alaina Fotiu-Wojtowicz, along with junior Laura Koehn. The other returning players are senior Lindsay Butler, junior Leah Corn and sophomores Nabilah Talib and Becka Buurma. Nearly a dozen newcomers round out the squad.
The Oberlin College women’s tennis team finished last season with an overall record of 13-11 and 4-2 in the NCAC, making them fourth in the conference, and they will try to continue their winning ways. Coach Hunsinger remained reserved, though, saying, “I hope we make it through.”
Both Oberlin tennis teams look to start the season off on the right foot in their first matches. The men will travel to Albion, Michigan on Saturday to face both Albion College and Alma College, while the women will host the two schools in non-conference action on Sunday.