Men's tennis serves up satisfying success

The Yeomen won a close match against Otterbein College 4-3 Saturday, upping their record to 2-2.

"Winning the doubles point was a key thing," Coach Chris Barker said. After the singles matches the Yeomen were tied with Otterbein 3-3 and needed to win two of the three doubles matches to secure the victory.

"It was definitely an inspirational victory for us," sophomore Wes Clapp said. "The win brought us all together. When you win a match 4-3 it could have gone either way. And you don't like to think of it that way. Everyone played at the top of their games and that contributed to the win."

"I learned from it," first-year Jed Greenberg said, "Hopefully, I won't make the same mistakes and that's what the pre-season is all about."

As the team prepares for their spring break trip to South Carolina, the team is already growing closer together.

"Everyone gets along very well," co-captain junior Peter Swendsen said. "Tennis is often a very individually-oriented sport. It's always critical when you have a team, to channel that individual energy to help the team. And I think people are doing well at that, and we're getting better as the season goes along."

The Yeomen play a cerebral game, as proved by their ITA awards last year. Last season, Oberlin was one of only two NCAC teams to earn ITA All-Academic Team honors. Senior Koji Ebersole and Swendsen also garnered ITA Scholar Athletic honors. They were the only two NCAC athletes to receive this distinction.

This Saturday the Yeomen play two matches against Ohio Northern University and Capital University.

"It's our first double-header of the season. So it'll be the most tennis we've played in a day," Swendsen said.