By Abbey Russell
Colorado College men’s tennis had a tough season-opening match last weekend against the University of Northern Colorado. At the end of the day, CC dropped the match 7-0 to its high-ranked opponent.
Noah Forman ’20 and Sam Hum ’21, playing first doubles, fought hard until the end of the match but unfortunately finished with a score of 6-4.
Billy Taylor ’23 and Alex Kley ’21, playing second doubles, as well as Jacob Adas ’22 and Nick Bishop ’23, playing third doubles, represented the Tigers during this portion of the match. Both matches were undoubtedly hard-fought but they ended in losing scores for the Tigers of 6-2 and 6-1 respectively.
“We definitely played our best tennis in doubles. We did a good job clogging the middle and taking a lot of options away from them,” said Jacob Pentz ’23.
The following singles matches were equally, if not more, challenging. Forman, playing first singles for CC, ultimately dropped the match 6-1 and 6-2. Hum and Taylor, playing second and third singles, were also defeated in two sets by their UNC opponents. Kley, playing fifth singles, came close to pushing his match into a third set with a final score of 6-2, 7-6.
“Lexi [Kley] did a great job adjusting and making a run in the second set, keeping the guy deep and looking for opportunities to come forward,” said Pentz.
Pentz discussed the second portion of the match further. “In singles we definitely need to return better and hold serve,” Pentz said. “We could hang with them from the baseline most of the time, they just out-rallied us and played smarter than we did.”
Finally, Alex Wimer ’22, playing sixth singles for CC, also worked hard to earn points against a tough opponent. In the end Wimer dropped the match 6-0, 6-2, but definitely improved in the second set, proving his capability to his D1 opponent.
“It was always going to be tough playing a solid D1 program as our first match of the season, after only having 5 practices,” Billy Taylor ’23 said. “There was little expectation going into the match, but the team is always supportive of one another regardless of the scoreline.”
He is optimistic about the team’s future, however. “As we practice more and figure out the lineup, performances will improve, and the whole team is optimistic about the rest of the season considering the quality we have.”
The team is travelling to Nebraska to take on McPherson College and Hastings College in early February.