Tennis falls in both matches last weekend

The BVU men’s tennis team had a tough weekend of matches. On Saturday, March 6, in Pella the BVU men’s team lost 8-1 to Central College, and 9-0 to University of Wisconsin Eau-Claire.

Against Central College, sophomores Marcus Rihner and Aaron Brewer defeated Thomas Golson and Ryan Shuey in an 8-5 victory. Although Rihner and Brewer had never played together in a doubles match, they proved to be a great pair.

“It was our first time playing doubles together. We really weren’t expecting much going into the match,” Rihner said. “Central is a really good team, so we were hoping to play as well as we could and just stay with they, I thought we did a good job of putting balls away when we had opportunities,” Rihner said.

Brewer also felt as if they did great for their first time playing together.
“We were consistent [during the match] and worked on our opponent’s weaknesses. We knew Central was going to be a tough team to beat. [I had] a little bit of nerves at first, but after a few games I started to feel confident in my shots,” Brewer said.

Against University of Wisconsin Eau-Claire, BVU was not able to win any matches, but head coach, Kevin McCadams, felt as if the team had played very well not only against Eau-Claire, but also against Central College.
“Eau-Claire is a good ranked team. They are ranked in the top 15 of the Central Regional Conference. Our conference has gotten much better from last year as well. Overall, we played respectably well this weekend. I was impressed with not only our match play, but our freshman as well,” McCadams said.

McCadams feels hopeful about the future of the team.

“We have a young team with many freshman and sophomores. I have seen a lot of positive growth this season. I have a really positive outlook on the future of the team as they continue to grow.” McCadams said. “Practice has been going really well lately. We have been working on close out points and putting balls away. I feel good going into next weekend,” McCadams said.

The BVU men’s The BVU men’s team takes this weekend off and returns to action next weekend against University of Dubuque on Sunday, Mar. 21, at 11 a.m. at home. The team then takes a long break for spring break and returns to face Simpson College on April 14. Overall, the BVU men’s team is 1-6; they are 0-4 in the IIAC.