Tennis Teams Kick Off the Millennium on a Positive Note

The men's and women's tennis teams embarked on their 2000 campaign this past Saturday. The Yeowomen beat John Carroll University by a 5-4 margin in a non-conference match while the men opened their NCAC play with deceptively close loss to Wabash College, 6-1. Though the two teams split, both exhibited a strong showing, with many of the Yeomen's losing sets going to tiebreakers or heartbreakingly close lost sets.

The aggregate points system is based on a combination of wins in singles and doubles events. On the men's side, each singles win is awarded with one point, while whichever school wins two out of the three doubles matches gets an additional point. For the women, each single and doubles event is worth one point a piece.

The final score does not even begin to tell the story on the men's side. Three singles competitors - sophomore Richard Raz, senior Jon Stinson and junior Ben Fox - battled their Wabash opponents to the wire forcing two tiebreakers as well as two 7-5 set outcomes. Who knows what could have happened if one game had swung the other way? Momentum would have shifted and Wabash would be reeling.

"We definitely played well and everyone came away happy," said junior Mike Shelton. "We split with [Wabash] last year, [and] all the matches were really close."

"We played pretty well, and most of the matches were close," said junior Ben Fox. "We're going to have to pull out some of those close ones to have a successful season."

First-year Jason Criscione competed in his first varsity tennis event, which was a big plus for all. "Jay was very happy [just to be competing]," said Shelton. Sophomore Brendan Mislin added that "Jay was really strong. He's going to play a key role on this team."

Other highlights included a strong showing from Mislin who garnered the only point for the Yeomen, sweeping his Wabash opponent 6-4, 6-4. In doubles competition, the teams of Fox and Stinson and Shelton and Mislin just fell short, losing 8-6 in both contests.

The men look to a non-conference schedule throughout much of March until Hiram on Mar. 22. They will host the next four matches beginning with John Carroll tomorrow at 10 a.m.

These tune-ups are key, because they will need to be on top of their game for the big boys, namely Denison University and the College of Wooster. All Mislin can say is that "People should come out on Saturday!"

The women faced a stiff competition in John Carroll on Saturday, but thanks to a gutsy three-set performance by first-year Leah Corn, the team picked up an important point. That point would prove vital, given that the doubles teams would take only one of the three games. The top three singles players: sophomore Sarah Jesse, first-year Alaina Fotiu-Wojtowicz and senior Jill Brockelman all swept their contests two sets to love. But it was the sixth-seeded Corn's performance that stole the show.

The team must rely on the first-years, including Corn. "We have four first-years, lots to look forward to," said Fotiu-Wojtowicz. "We all get along really well."

In the John Carroll game, Fotiu-Wojtowicz highlighted the depth of the squad. "They beat us at the end of the season last year and they didn't graduate anyone," she said.

The men face John Carroll at 10 a.m. Saturday in the Heisman field house before the women square off with Marietta College in the Heisman Field House Saturday at 1 p.m.

Love me tender: Members of the men's tennis team practice their strokes in preparation for their match with John Carroll this Saturday at 10 am. (photo by Brian Hodgkin)