You might be tempted to write the Viking tennis teams off after this season’s results. The women went 4-15 and the men 2-17, with a total of one conference win for the year. It would be a mistake to underestimate them, though. Things may not have looked so sunny from the outside, but the match-side tale tells a different story. These teams are more than capable of coming back next year and reversing their 2012 results.
You might be tempted to write the Viking tennis teams off after this season’s results. The women went 4-15 and the men 2-17, with a total of one conference win for the year. It would be a mistake to underestimate them, though. Things may not have looked so sunny from the outside, but the match-side tale tells a different story. These teams are more than capable of coming back next year and reversing their 2012 results.
For one thing, both men’s and women’s teams were very young this year. That’s something that’s brought up in the defense of many under performing college level teams, but in this case, it happens to be true. How many Big Sky tennis teams had rosters half made up of freshmen, or with no seniors, as the women’s and men’s tennis teams respectively had this year? When you’re looking at the women’s results, remember that the players who played most often at the first, third and fourth place this year were true freshmen, with up to three more years of development and play in front of them.
The loss of Marti Pellicano, the senior who played at fourth for most of the season, will hurt, but the emergence of freshman Megan Govi, who went an even .500 in her last ten matches, playing at the second, third and fourth court, and the continuing development of sophomore Marina Todd, who matched Megan Govi’s win-percentage after a promising season in 2011, should more than hearten Vikings fans when looking forward to next year’s season.
The men’s team should also have a more positive outlook. None of this year’s players will age out of the team next year, and many on the team showed promise. The Vikings won more matches at each court than the team was able to win games as a whole. The \results told against them this year, but many games were lost narrowly, and everyone on the team has the summer to train and work out their practice schedules from the coaching staff. The team’s best win percentage came at the first court, from redshirt sophomore Roman Margoulis.
The net effect of the potential return of so many players from this year, and the continuing hand of head coach Jay Sterling and his staff, should be that improvement next year should look more likely than ever. The Vikings now have a permanent home at Club Green Meadows, which as of this year is also bedecked with Viking flags and paraphernalia, and third year coach Sterling is bringing the players he’s been working with since he came to the team into their junior and senior seasons.
So don’t despair, Viking tennis fans. This year might have ended grimly, but all signs point to next year being much better.
