Colorado College men’s tennis had split results in their six matches over spring break in Orlando, Fla. The Tigers started their break with back-to-back wins on Friday, March 11. In their morning match, CC rolled over Clark University 7-2 and easily defeated Juniata College 6-3 in the afternoon. The team swept all six double matches of the day. Tiger duo sophomore Jason Gutierrez and freshman Daniel Holland won 8-0 and 9-7 at the No. 1 position. Gutierrez went on to win both of his singles matches, capturing both wins in the No. 1 position in three sets.
“We played really well over spring break,” said Holland. “We went 3-3 overall, which was an improvement from last year, and more importantly every guy on the team worked really hard to put out the best on court showing possible.”
On Sunday, March 13, the Tigers took to the courts again continuing their winning streak with a third consecutive victory over Franklin Pierce College 8-1. Once again, CC swept all three doubles matches. In singles play, James Bizanna of Franklin Pierce College defeated Gutierrez 6-2, 6-0 in the No. 1 position. However, the undeterred Tigers swept the other five singles matches in straight sets with victories from Holland 6-4 6-1, sophomore Brian Chen 6-3 6-4, junior Jack Benham 6-2 6-3, sophomore Ben Bacher 6-2 6-1, and freshman Christian Kitchen 6-1 6-4.
“Overall I was very happy with our play as a team,” said Gutierrez. “In our first three matches we put in some very solid performances against good teams and came away with three wins.”
The next night University of Wisconsin-La Crosse snapped the Tigers three-game win streak with an impressive 8-1 win. UW-La Crosse took all three doubles matches though the Tigers put up a fight. Chen and senior Tyler Delehanty were narrowly defeated 7-9 for the No. 2 spot.
“We played well but there was room for improvement with footwork in my opinion,” said Chen.
In singles, Holland gave CC their only win of the night, defeating Austin Stefanich 6-3 6-2 in the No. 2 spot.
“Our biggest weakness is finishing points and being aggressive in doubles though that has been steadily improving,” said Holland.
The closest game of the night came in the No. 5 spot where Bacher lost a three-setter to UW-La Crosse’s Schneider 6-1, 1-6, 12-10.
The following day the Tigers dropped another match to Macalester College, 6-1. The game brought the Tiger’s record to an even .500 with 6-6 so far in the season. Chen and Delehanty brought CC their only victory of the match in the No. 2 doubles spot over Macalester’s Wilson Merrell and Ben Wilson, 8-2. The Macalester Scots swept all four singles matches in straight sets.
In their final match of the break the Tigers fell to Franklin and Marshall University, 7-2. CC’s first win of the day came from Benham and Kitchen in the No. 3 doubles spot. The duo defeated Franklin and Marshall’s Evan Drapeau and Theodore Apt, 8-5. The Tiger’s second win came from Bacher in the No. 6 singles spot who defeated Giovanni Corrado, 2-6, 6-4, 1-0(3).
“In the final three matches, the teams we played were significantly better, but I thought all of our guys played tough and competed well,” said Gutierrez. “My hope for the season is that everyone on the team will continue to dedicate themselves to becoming better players and give themselves a chance to win by fighting for every match. I am confident that if we continue to focus on our development as players and as a team that we will do well down in Texas for conference in April.”
After the strong start and rough finish to their spring break trip, the men’s tennis team record now stands at 6-7. The Tigers were scheduled to compete in the University of Colorado’s Jerry Quiller Classic on Saturday, March 19, but the matches were canceled due to weather.
Now, the Tigers have the opportunity to break their losing streak. CC plays Midwestern State on Friday, March 25 at 3:30 p.m.